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ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENTS 



OF 



ANGLICANISM ; 



OR, 



A HISTOBY OF THE LITURGIES, HOMILIES, 

ARTICLES, BIBLES, 

PBINCIPLES AND GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM OF THE 



§\m\ 0f (&U$kA 



BY 

THE REV. W. WATERWORTH, SJ. 



LONDON : 
BURNS & LAMBERT, 17 PORTMAN STREET, 

PORTMAN SQUARE, 

AND 63 PATERNOSTER ROW. 

MDCCCLIY. 






PRINTED BY W1LLLIAM DAVY AND SON, GILBERT STREET. 



TO THE VERY REV. 

THE REV. P. BECKX, 

GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, 

flfeie Math 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY HIS PATERNITY'S OBEDIENT SERVANT, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



In a former Volume, I have traced the spiritual connexion 
of England and the Holy See, from the times of Lever 
Maur, who applied to Rome in the second century for 
instructers in the faith, down to the sixteenth century, 
when Henry the Eight dissolved the ancient union, and 
attached to the English Crown the rights and prerogatives 
which had till then been unhesitatingly, and on principle, 
conceded to the Roman Pontiffs. 

To describe the grounds on which this transfer of power 
was based ; to trace the origin of the liturgical, symbol- 
ical, and other authoritative works which appeared in the 
reigns of Henry, and of his two children, Edward and 
Elizabeth ; and to examine in detail every important 
circumstance connected with the Bible, which after the 
separation of England from Rome had been effected, was 
proclaimed to be, what it has ever since been believed to 
be, the only rule of faith of Anglicanism, are the objects 
which I propose to myself in the following pages. 

The subjects referred to are obviously of great impor- 
tance ; for on them turns the whole question of the divine 
or human origin of the English Reformation. If it can be 
shown that passion and not revelation ; that arbitrary 
power and not divine right, were considered in the estab- 
lishment of the Church of England ; if further it can be 
demonstrated that the symbolical and doctrinal works of 

-5 



VI PREFACE. 

the Reformers were characterized by inconsistency and 
contradictions, it will be readily conceded that the new 
religion was simply a human institution — a kingdom of 
this world, and nothing better. 

Now, it appears to me, that all this, and much more 
indeed, can easily be established by facts as patent as the 
history of Henry's divorce from Queen Catherine, of 
Henry's parliaments, and of the innovations connected with 
religion, which marked the three score and eight years 
which intervened between the apostacy of Henry the 
Eighth and the death of Elizabeth. 

These facts will be fully and accurately stated in the 
sequel of this volume; and further, such inferences as 
logically flow from the historical premises will be briefly 
laid before the reader, in order that a correct estimate may 
be formed of that system of belief, which has been 
guarded for the last three hundred years, by the two- 
edged sword of penal statutes and state-patronage. 

Though the questions discussed in this volume may 
have frequently been laid before the English public in 
former publications, they have not, it is believed, been 
ever treated in the manner here adopted. Several writers, 
for example, have ably developed the Solibiblical prin- 
ciple ; they have, too, when engaged on the delineation of 
Protestantism, referred to those frequent changes both in 
doctrine and practice, which were the natural results of 
Erastianism ; but no one has, I think, sifted the sixth 
Article in relation to the Deutero-canonical writings, or 
reduced the whole of Anglicanism to its original elements, 
and thus tested its nature and its origin. 

To me this analytical process seems highly satisfactory 
and conclusive. It enables the reader to see things as 



PREFACE. VU 

they really are; whilst it removes the earthy mound 
beneath which truth has been too long buried. 

No pains have been spared to render this work both 
interesting and useful ; and with this conviction I submit 
my endeavour's to the discriminating judgment of the 
friends of truth. Partizans — men who adhere to systems 
and opinions not from a conviction of their being true, but 
on account of their agreement with religious or political 
prepossessions — will not approve of what I have recorded 
in relation to Anglicanism. They would have me and 
others forget the origin of the establishment ; and instead 
of stating with Macauley that " the Church of England 
sprang frorn a compromise, huddled up between the eager 
zeal of Reformers and the selfishness of greedy, ambitious, 
and time-serving politicians," they would wish me to 
describe it as venerable and Heaven-sent. But this I 
could not do. My object in writing is to teach; and all 
instruction should be truth. Truth is above and beyond 
party feeling or individualism : it admits not of deflections : 
it goes straightforward : — 

'OpOov rj aXqOel asl. 

To sacrifice truth to party, or not to declare it openly 
where revelation and man's eternal interests are at stake, 
must ever be looked upon as an unworthy compromise, 
and the very worst species of religious treachery. 

Qui non libeee veeitatem peonunciat, pkoditoe est veettatis. 

Instit. Just 



9, Hill Steeet, London, 
Dec. 8th, 1854. 



ESBATA. 

Pag-e 47, note, for Gebet, read Gerbet. 
„ 220, line 5, dele and third. 
„ 246, line I, for Hiliarv, read Hilary. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. — Anglican statements relative to the defection of the 
Universal Church. 

Statement of the Homilies relative to an universal apostacy. — Conse- 
quences derivable from this statement. — These consequences, as well 
as the general accusations proved to he untenable., 1 



Chapter II. — Examination of the principle laid down in the Homilies 
relative to the defection of the Church. 

The Church infallible — proved first by an universal testification, and 
secondly, by the Scriptures of the New Law, which are a realization of 
the prophecies of the Old Testament. — Use and end of the Ministry. — 
This end attained in Catholicity. — The Ministry is useless on Protestant 
grounds. — The Protestant allegation of defection disproved. — The charge 
of idolatry shown to be absolutely groundless, from the zeal and cha- 
racter of the Missioners of the middle ages, the countries they con- 
verted, the monuments they erected, the books they wrote ; as also 
from even the Protestant catalogue of Saints. — Origin and progress of 
the Protestant calumny. — The charge not substantiated by reference 
to Catholic doctrines. — These doctrines are defended by eminent Protes- 
tants. — General observations on the folly and falseness of the Homi- 
lies 8 



CHAPTER III. — On the Origin and Authority of the Articles of Reli- 
gion of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Elizabeth. 

Importance of the examination of the History of the Articles. — Their 
authority in the Anglican Church. — Henry's innovations destructive 
of Episcopal and Clerical authority, generally. — The six Articles, and 
works in connexion with them. — These Articles, &c. forced on the 
people. — The principle involved in the framing of the Articles, destruc- 
tive of Anglicanism. — Fox and others write against the Articles. — The 
Articles and religion of Henry are changed by King Edward. — History 
of the origin, number, nature, and subscription of the Articles of 
Edward VI. — The Articles mainly formed by Cranmer. — His vacillating 
character. — Eeproached for his changes by Gardiner, &c. — Still, always 
dogmatical, imperious, and cruel. — Persecution of Mary. — Her firmness. 



CONTENTS. 

— Articles of Elizabeth ; their number and distinctive character. — 
Reported ignorance of the framers of the Thirty-nine Articles. The 
Articles are enforced and subscribed. — Review of the changes in the 
national religion during the reigns of Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth. — 
These Changes wholly dependant on individuals. — Proved from the 
Zurich letters. — The Articles are worthless as an authority. — This 
admitted even by Anglicans. — Observations of Le Maistre on Protes- 
tant Articles. — Difference between the origin of the Articles, and the 
Profession of Faith of Pope Pius. — Justification of the latter 50 



Chapter IV. — On the Origin and Authority of the Homilies. 

Origin and end of the Homilies. — Read in all Churches, by Order. — Their 
authors. — Character of these Authors. — Specimens of their gross incon- 
sistencies and contradictions. — The Homilies approved of by the Articles, 
but disliked by the People. — Signs of dislike. — Condemned as false and 
contradictory. — The Justice of this condemnation. — They are worthless 
in themselves and in their origin 109 



Chapter V. — On the Anglican Liturgies. 

History of the Liturgical changes. — Forms of prayer condemned, though 
previously ascribed to the Holy Ghost — History of the Primer, &c. in 
Henry's time. — Edward's Liturgies. — Changes in them. — Authors of 
the changes. — Elizabeth's Liturgy. — Changes, and grounds of the alter- 
ations. — The Liturgy disapproved of formerly and now. — The objections 
raised against it. — Alterations suggested. — The changes in the Liturgy 
as well as in the Articles, prove the hollowness and worldliness of 
Anglicanism. — Observations on the words " our Liturgy.'' 1 — Whence did 
the Anglicans derive those prayers, of which they boast so much ? 122 



Chapter VI. — On the Royal Supremacy. 

At the accession of Henry, not the King, but the Pope was head of the 
English Church. — His power considered to be divine, and as such defended 
by Henry himself. — Henry's work — The title conferred on him in conse- 
quence. — Henry abandons the Pope, and makes himself head of the 
Church. — His conduct, and that of the Clergy, during the change. — 
Awful extent of the royal assumption— Secured to him by Acts of 
Parliament, by oaths, &c. — Subserviency of the Clergy, and their 
subsequent abject condition. — More and Fisher die in defence of the 
Papal Supremacy. — Edward's claims to and exercise of the Supremacy. 
— Remonstrance of the Clergy. — Indignation of the German and Hel- 
vetic Reformers. — Elizabeth refuses the title of Head, but assumes 
that of Governor of the Church, with all the prerogatives of the 
Supremacy. — Remarks on the change in the title, by the Anglicans and 
others. — Opposition of the Catholic Clergy to Elizabeth's claims to the 
Supremacy. — Results. — The Supremacy ever since claimed by and 
allowed to our Sovereigns by Parliament. — Grounds raised for the 



CONTENTS. XI 

maintenance of the Supremacy proved to be untenable. — Consequences 
to England's Christianity flowing from the assumed Supremacy. — 
Folly of the recent address made to the Queen, relative to the Indepen- 
dence of the Church in England. — The scriptural proof in favour of 
the Royal Supremacy, false as a fact, and absurd as an argument. — 
No mission in the Anglican Church. — The marks of the Church have 
disappeared here ever since a King was substituted for the Pope. . 138 



' Chapter VII. — On the Anglican Authorized Bible. 

Heretics, both ancient and modern, adopt some distinctive version of 
the Scriptures. — Necessity of this ; and consequent recriminations. — 
Translations formerly approved of, but condemned by Henry VIII. — 
Elizabeth's Bibles denounced. — The Authorized version of 1611. — 
History of this version. — The Translators, and the rules which they 
were obliged by James to follow. — No correct Anglican Bible till 
seventy- seven years after the Reformation. — Consequences to be drawn 
from this admission, fatal to the Reformation. — The Authorized Version 
has been and is complained of by the learned.— Proofs. — Lowth has 
shaken to pieces the very foundations on which the translation of the 
Old Testament was based. — Obvious difficulties in connexion with the 
translation of the New Testament. — Development of the principles of 
this difficulty. — Labours of Mills and others to recover the true Apos- 
tolic text. — Proofs given in detail of the ignorance and unfitness of the 
English translators « 177 



Chapter VIII. — On the meaning of the word, Holy Scriptures ; and 
on the inspiration, authenticity, and canonicity of the Bible. 

Importance of this examination, and the difficulty it involves. — Meaning 
of the word Bible. — Origin, age, country, and character of the sacred 
writings. — Inspiration required. — What it is. — Protestant theories de- 
veloped. — No fixed ideas on this head, though inspiration is essential to 
the Bible. — By extrinsic proofs only can inspiration be proved — ad- 
mitted by Taylor, Hooker, &c. — Foolish proofs of inspiration adduced 
by Anglicans from Christ's words. — Authenticity. — The canonical 
writings.— The sixth Article on this bead, false.— Some works admitted 
by Protestants, were formerly doubted of as much as those writings 
which they reject. — Continuous evidence on this head. — Principles 
advocated by Cyril and others for discovering the canonicity of any 
writing. — Whether Protestants reject or receive tradition, then' posi- 
tion is untenable. — Belief of the Church at the end of the fourth cen- 
tury relative to the sacred books. — Lists of the Scriptures drawn up at 
Carthage, at Rome, and elsewhere. — Detailed and specific examination 
of each of the divine writings rejected by Protestants. — Their canonicity 
clearly established.— Falseness of the sixth Article in whatever way it be 
tested. — Protestants know absolutely nothing of the origin and mode of 
settling the canon of the Old Testament. — Varying accounts on this 
head, in respect to Esdras, the Synagogue, and the works forming the 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Bible, at various periods.— Even after Esdras, books added to the 
Canon.— Testimony of Josephus, and the principle involved in it. — 
Observations on the statement of the sixth Article in connexion with 
St. Jerome. — The statement unfair, and disproved by St. Jerome him- 
self. — Catholic principle advocated by this Saint. 194 



Chap. IX. — The Solibiblical principle — its difficulties and 
contradictions. 

The Solibiblical principle false — opposed to the teaching of Christ, his 
Apostles, and the Church of all ages, and in direct opposition to the 
antisymbolical origin and character of the Sacred writings. — Mode of 
acting of Christ, the Apostles, and the Church. — How many Apostles 
wrote, and why they wrote. — The generative principle of faith in the 
Apostolic and after times. — Testimonies of the Fathers on this head. 
The Solibiblical principle unavailable for more than 1400 years. — The 
Scriptures decide nothing about their own meaning — this evidenced hy 
the Sects which pretend to believe the Bible. — Selden's observations and 
Henry the Eighth's restrictions. — The Scripture full of difficulties — 
cause of this. — Proposed limitation of this principle. — Useless as a prin- 
ciple of faith and unjust in Anglicanism. — Examination of the texts 
ordinarily adduced in favour of the Bible being the only " JRule of Faith." 
— The Biblical system justly opposed by Catholics. — It is irreconcilable 
too with numerous tenets believed in by the English Church. — Instances 
in proof. — Motives of the adherence of Catholics to the authority of the 
Church 264 



Chap. X. — On the Zeal of the Catholics in Transcribing and Circu- 
lating the Sacred Scriptures, and the Grounds of Opposition to the 
Bible Society. 

Catholic Zeal in Transcribing, Translating, and Spreading the Sacred Scrip- 
tures, attested by Protestants, and evidenced by a Multiplicity of Manu- 
scripts in the various Libraries of Europe, &c. — Continuation and Extension 
of this Zeal after the Discovery of the Art of Printing. — Bibles published 
in every Ancient and nearly every Modern Language. — Continuous proofs 
of this point. — Zeal and favour of the Popes. — Catholic Commentators 
as contrasted with Protestant Annotators. — Origin of the Protestant 
Idea respecting Catholic Opposition to the Scriptures. — Origin of the 
Index, and History of the Fourth Bule. — This Rule both Wise and 
Truthful, and conformable to the Apostolic Teaching. — Even Protes- 
tants approve of the Principle advocated in the Fourth Rule. — Modifica- 
tion of the Rule under altered circumstances. — Causes of the Opposition 
of the Pontiffs to the Bible Society. — These Causes just and commend- 
able. — Antagonism of the Members of the Bible Society. — This Anta- 
gonism clearly demonstrated. — Conclusion. 345 



Appendix 391 



THE 



ENGLISH REFORMATION. 



Cjrajjte \\t Jfbf. 



Anglican statements relative to the defection of the 
Universal Church. 



CONTENTS. 

Statement of the Homilies relative to an universal apostacy. — Conse- 
quences derivable from this statement. — These consequences, as well 
as the general accusations proved to he untenable. 

It is stated in the second book of Homilies, that " Laity 
and Clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects, and 
degrees of men, women, and children, of whole Christendom 
fan horrible and most dreadful thing to think J, have been 
at once drowned in abominable idolatry : of all other vices 
most detested of God, and most damnable to man, and 
that by the space of eight hundred years and more." 1 The 

1 Third part of the Sermon against the Peril of Idolatry, p. 150, Ed. 
1683. The second book of Homilies was first published in 1562 ; the first 
was printed as early as 1547. Cranmer and Becon were the principal 
writers of the first book, and Bishop Jewel of the second. 



9, The English Reformation. 

Homilies, if we may credit the declaration of the thirty -fifth 
of the Thirty-nine Articles, contain " a godly and whole- 
some doctrine and necessary for these times." 1 On their 
first publication, they were commanded to be read in every 
Church of the land, by the parochial Clergy, on whose capa- 
city or orthodoxy neither Edward nor Elizabeth could 
rely ; 3 and every minister is still bound to read them, at 
least privately, 3 inasmuch as he subscribes the Articles, and 
through them declares, that the doctrine of the Homilies 
is " godly and wholesome " ; for how can this declaration 
be honestly made, if the Homilies have not been atten- 
tively studied ? From this statement, then, which ministers 
and people are commanded to believe in, and which is 
repeated over and over again, not only in the Homilies, 4 
but also in the writings of the first Reformers, it follows, 
that Christianity had, according to Protestant belief, wholly 
and entirely disappeared from the face of the earth ; that 
from the year 734 down to the year 1534, when Protes- 
tantism was introduced into this country, under the aus- 
pices of our eighth Henry, idolatry had prevailed every- 
where ; men, women, and children, having all forfeited 
the grace of Christianity, become objects of detestation 
to the Deity, and amenable to Heaven's severest chastise- 
ments. 

Christianity, we are also told, was re-introduced by 
the Anglican Reformation. Then idolatry became legally 
extinct; and in the Prayer-book of the Established Church, 
composed in 1548, was seen the manifestation of the Holy 
Spirit, — that work having been composed " by the aid of 

1 See thirty-fifth Article. 

2 Ibid., and Burnet's Exposition of the Articles, p. 375, Ed. 1705. 

3 Burnet's Articles, p. 376. 4 Burnet, ibid. 



The English Reformation. S 

the Holy Ghost " b as we are solemnly assured, in the 
preamble to the act of Parliament which approved of the 
new Liturgy, and also enacted, under severe penalties, 
that it, and it only, should be used by every minister of 
the Church whilst celebrating divine service, through the 
length and breadth of the land. 

In the above statements, two most important proposi-' 
tions are contained: 1° Not only may Christianity, or the 
one form of faith established by Jesus Christ, fail, but as 
a matter of fact, it did fail utterly; and, for nearly a 
thousand years, the system of religion introduced by our 
blessed Saviour, was nothing more than matter of history 
— it was a thing which had once been, but which, eventu- 
ally, had ceased to be. 2° When Christianity was again 
restored, it was restored by the English Reformers, aided 
by a divinely assisted Parliament : the Articles of the new 
religion contained the symbol of orthodoxy ; the Common 
Prayer-book was a work of more than human wisdom; 
and the Homilies taught a godly and wholesome doctrine. 

Now, I need hardly inform the reader, that both these 
propositions are absolutely and unhesitatingly denied by 
the vast majority of the Christian world. The first assertion 
is denied by all Catholics, and the second is disallowed 
by the whole of Christendom, if we except the compara- 
tively small establishment, known by the name of the 
Anglican Church. The Catholic Church, which is spread 

5 See the preamble in BurneVs Beformation, vol. ii, p. 93, Ed. 1683 ; as 
also in Lingard's Hist, of England, vol. iv, p. 396, Ed. 4to. This preamble 
is remarkable, on account of a gross falsehood. It states that the Prayer- 
book had been drawn up with one common agreement ; whereas, it is a 
well-known fact, that eight out of the eighteen prelates, on the committee 
which framed the Liturgy, voted against it. — Lord's Journals, 331. 



4 TJie English Reformation. 

over nearly the whole universe, and which counts its 
followers by hundreds of thousands, — followers, who have 
in every age given to the world the noblest proofs of 
intellectuality, of genius, and of devoted piety, — proofs, 
which arrest the attention of the student and of the scholar, 
in this, as well as other lands, and which, neither time, 
nor influences more destructive than time, have been, 
or ever will be, able to obliterate, not only denies the 
fact of the errancy of the Church, but also, the possibility 
of such an occurrence. This mighty body, consisting, 
perhaps, of two hundred millions of members, asserts, that 
the Church has not erred, and that it cannot err, since 
Jesus Christ has promised to guard His Church against 
all error, even unto the end of time. Such is the Catholic 
statement ; and if the decision of this question were left to 
mere human evidence — if nations, or numbers, or learning, 1 
or sanctity, were allowed to be decisive in such a matter, 
it is plain that Protestantism would be cast ; units would 
have to yield to thousands, and before our millions of 
scholars and armies of saints, the fautors of the new 
system would have to hide their diminished heads. 

If, then, it can be made manifest, that the Anglican 
Church can, at the best, offer only human evidence, in 
favour either of this or any other distinctive conclusion, 

1 Anglicans are for ever boasting of their own learning, and speaking 
contemptuously of the learning of Catholic countries. Cobbett took an 
easy way of testing the accuracy of the English idea. He fixed upon a 
period most favourable to English, and least favourable to French and 
Italian literature — the period ranging from 1600 to 1787. Now what was 
the result of this examination ? This : whilst England, Ireland and 
Scotland could only boast of 132 writers of eminence during that period, 
France could point to 676, and benighted Italy to 164!— See Cobbetfs 
Letters, p. 34, 8vo Ed. 



The English Reformation. 5 

it will be clearly seen, not only that the bold and Christi- 
anity-destroying statement, contained in this first proposi- 
tion, is utterly reckless and untrue, but also, that the 
book of Homilies, in which this position is maintained, 
and the Articles which sanction the Homilies, are value- 
less as authorities. Now, all this can easily be established, 
as we shall show during the course of this work. 

The other proposition, which asserts, that when Christi- 
anity was again restored, it was restored by the English 
Reformers, and that the English Church professes the 
one form of faith which the Apostles originally taught, 
is again denied, and denied, as I have already observed, 
with increased emphasis. Not only do Catholics rise up 
in opposition, but the Eastern and Western world treats 
the declaration with scorn. Greeks, and Nestorians, and 
Eutychians, as well as Lutherans, Calvinists, Socinians, 
Baptists, Presbyterians, "Wesleyans, and the professors of 
a hundred other creeds, all proclaim the word to be false. 
The former tell the Anglicans, that the Protestant creed 
is a creed of yesterday, a creed unheard of in past times ; 
whilst the latter point to their sects as the living represen- 
tatives of the Church of former ages; and they openly 
declare, that therefore have they joined the ranks of 
dissent, because, through dissent only, could they become 
real professors of Christ's one faith. 2 Such is the view, 
which all but Anglicans take, of the grounds of the Re- 
formation, and of the character of that Establishment, 

2 Although, to gain the favor of the Dissenters, some Low Church 
ministers have lately asserted, that the differences between Anglicanism 
and Dissent are trifling, neither Dissenters have adopted this notion, nor 
will the writings and laws issued against Dissent, hear out this time-serving 
statement. 



6 The English Reformation, 

which arose in England in the sixteenth century, — a view 
not certainly very flattering, either to the originators, or 
to the actual defenders of the new Church. 

The propositions, however, are too important to he thus 
hastily passed over ; on them the most important results 
depend. If it can be shown that the Church cannot err, 
then is the old, the unreformed Church, the Church which 
discards the very notion of errancy, which upholds the 
principle of inerrancy, and assumes an unchanging semper 
eadem for its glorious motto, to be believed; and reform 
in all its shapes, is proved to be erring reason, set up in 
opposition to the Divine mind, the apotheosis of ignorance, 
and the metamorphosis of truth. Obviously, then, the 
question of the errancy or inerrancy of the Church, is 
deserving of the greatest attention. On the Church's in- 
errancy, the Catholic relies with confidence ; here is his 
anchor of security, and here his answer to all separatists. 
These may prophecy the downfall of the Church; they 
may declaim against a hundred truths, and call them blas- 
phemies ; but he is unmoved. Believing in the authority 
of the Church, he feels assured, that though the storm 
may rage, the mystic vessel will not founder ; though 
numerous enemies may assail the Church, it will not be 
overcome : to be lashed by the waves, to be assailed by 
enemies, was to be the lot of the Church ; but to endure 
for ever, to survive every assailant, that was likewise to 
be its destiny. Though accused of error, it shall be 
truthful, for Christ the truth is with it ; and though 
scoffed at as foolish, it shall still be heaven-informed, for 
with it and in it, the Spirit of wisdom unceasingly abides. 
On the other hand, the Protestant of the Church of Eng- 
land justifies his Reformation, . and his rejection of the 



The English Reformation. 7 

olden Church, 1 on the supposition of the actual failure of 
the Church. If it have not failed, then his system is false, 
and worse than worthless ; it is Anti- christian, and essen- 
tially blasphemous. But mark ! "Whilst the Church's in- 
errancy proves the falseness of every opposing system of 
belief, its fallibility would not evidence the truthfulness 
either of the Anglican or any other form of faith. The 
scores of conflicting fallible systems, have still to settle 
their respective differences, and each fallible Church has 
to prove, that, though fallible, it does not fail, and that 
the propositions which it enunciates, and the practices 
which it considers as essential to religion, are, in fact, the 
revelations and the ordinances of the Almighty. How 
this is to be done, — how, without some infallible living 
and teaching authority, the differences which separate and 
divide this country are to be settled, is a problem, I think, 
of at least difficult solution. But with this we have no- 
thing to do : our observations will be restricted to the 
doctrinal, sacramental, and governmental developments of 
the Anglican Church. After examining the question of 
the authority of the Church, we will further consider the 
evidences which Protestantism offers for the creed of the 
Articles, and the statements of the Prayer-book and of 
the Homilies; thus adding evidence to evidence in re- 
spect to the real character of that establishment which 
supplanted the Church of this country, on the 30th day of 
March, 1534. 

1 See Jewel 1 s Apology, passim, especially towards the close of the work. 



Cfapte % Bttuk 



Examination of the principle laid down in the Homilies, 
relative to the defection of the Church. 



CONTENTS. 

The Church infallible — proved first by an universal testification, and 
secondly, by the Scriptures of the New Law, which are a realization of 
the prophecies of the Old Testament. — Use and end of the Ministry. — 
This end attained in Catholicity. — The Ministry is useless on Protestant 
grounds. — The Protestant allegation of defection disproved. — The charge 
of idolatry shown to be absolutely groundless, from the zeal and cha- 
racter of the Missioners of the middle ages, the countries they con- 
verted, the monuments they erected, the books they wrote ; as also 
from even the Protestant catalogue of Saints. — Origin and progress of 
the Protestant calumny. — The charge not substantiated by reference 
to Catholic doctrines. — These doctrines are defended by eminent Protes- 
tants. — General observations on the folly and falseness of the Homelists. 

Can the whole Church of Christ, fall into damnable error, 
as is stated in the Book of Homilies ? My answer shall he 
clear : the Church of Christ cannot err, it cannot possibly 
fall into that damnable idolatry, of which the book of 
Homilies accuses it. And mark my proof: Christ the 
founder, the parent of the Church, has absolutely promised 
to secure it against all error, even unto the end of the 
world. If further, you bid me say on what grounds I rest 
this statement, I answer : I am acquainted with this fact 
in the same way as I am with the fact of the existence of 
Christ, the original planting of the Church, or the in- 



The English Reformation. 9 

spiration and canonicity of the writings of the New 
Testament. From a consentient and unanimous testi- 
mony, I know that Christ has come into the world, that 
he has founded a Church, and that the Apostles and others 
wrote certain documents, under the immediate assistance 
and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. From a similar consen- 
tient and world-wide testimony, I learn what is the essen- 
tial characteristic of the Church of Christ. All Catholics, 
spread over the world, testify to two facts : 1° That the 
Church cannot err in matters of faith ; and %° That this 
belief has been handed down, as the declaration of our 
forefathers, from the days of the Apostles to these our 
times. From these two facts, which are of world-wide 
notoriety, it follows, that this belief has been handed down 
by the last generation of Catholics, to the actual members 
of the Church. The uniformity and simultaneity of the 
testification exclude the possibility of doubt on this head. 
No one nation could be induced to conspire at a given 
moment to testify to a lie, much less could all the nations 
of the earth, especially in respect to a matter which in- 
volves the eternal interests of so many millions. But in 
every nation, our fathers have all testified to one and the 
same thing, as is evidenced by our actual belief; they 
spoke then according to their belief, and this belief re- 
garding a previous tradition, this very doctrine was taught 
to them, and, for the same reason, to their forefathers. No 
moment can be assigned, in which this uniform tradition 
can have been forged; it is then no novelty; it is an 
essential doctrine of Christianity, and as such the Catholic 
world receives it. In a word, therefore, does the Catholic 
world now admit the infallibility of the Church, because 
it has been uniformly handed down as a revelation. The 

b2 



10 The English Reformation. 

race of men who have taught us, taught us what they 
had received, as a revelation of Jesus Christ, from their 
fathers, and thus the line of witnesses can never end till it 
reaches Jesus Christ. There has been then, in every age, 
from the Apostolic days, an uninterrupted body of testifi- 
cators who have delivered, and of witnesses — themselves 
destined to be eventually testifiers — who have received, 
the doctrine in debate, as well as those other articles of 
faith, to which I have already directed the reader's at- 
tention, namely, the incarnation of Christ, the establish- 
ment of the Church, and the inspiration of the sacred 
writers of the New Covenant. Eeject this mass of authority 
and Christianity is undone. Not even Christ's existence 
can be established without it ; and His divinity, and the 
divinity of the sacred writings, will remain unproved, if 
such extrinsic evidence can be rejected. There is not a 
fact of history, there is not any merely literary or scientific 
truth as firmly based, as the truth under investigation; 
for what merely historic fact is there, what truth connected 
with science and literature, to which two hundred millions 
of individuals of every nation, tongue, and people testify, 
in the same unhesitating and decided manner as the mil- 
lions of Catholics scattered over the world, testify to the 
infallibility of the Church? If human testimony, then, 
can make us cognizant of facts, if circumstances can tend 
to confirm and strengthen the evidences of truth, then 
were it madness to deny the infallibility of the Church : 
for of all facts, this is palpably the most important, and it 
is established by the evidence of millions of every age. 
" Ipsa sola Ecclesise Catholicae auctoritas argumentum est 
majoris ponderis, quam alia quae vis ratio, quia credendum 
judicamus quidquid maxime et vitam et societatem hu- 



The English Reformation. 11 

manam dirigit ac conducit." 1 On this testimony, St. 
Augustine completely relied ; and lie hesitated not to say, 
that but for it he would not have believed the Gospel 
itself. 2 Viewing the Church in itself, and in its evidences, 
this most learned convert to the Church observes : ( ' There 
are many other things (besides the heavenly wisdom of 
the Church) which most justly keep me in her bosom. 
The agreement of peoples and of nations keeps me. Au- 
thority, begun with miracles, nourished with hope, in- 
creased by charity, strengthened by antiquity, keeps me. 
The succession of priests from the see itself of the Apostle 
Peter — to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, com- 
mitted His sheep to be fed — down to the present epis- 
copacy, keeps me. Lastly, the very name of the Catholic 
Church, keeps me ; a name, of which, in the midst of so 
many heresies, this Church alone has, not without reason, 
so kept possession, that though all heretics wish them- 
selves to be called Catholics, yet to the enquiry of any 
stranger, ' Where is the meeting of the Catholic Church 
held ? ', no heretic dares to point out his own basilica or 
house." 3 Assuredly, Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, 
and Thomas Joseph, the Bishop of Menevia and New- 
port, 4 are of the same mind : both speak alike, in respect 
to the authority and infallibility of the Church; both, 
alike, shrink with horror from the supposition that the 

1 E. H. on Infallibility, p. 28, Ed. 1687. I believe that Abraham 
Woodhead is the author of the work referred to ; at all events, the lan- 
guage, arguments, &c. are like his. 

2 Ego vero Evangelio non crederem, nisi me Catholicse Ecclesise com- 
moveret Auctoritas. Contra JEjpist. Maniclioti fundam., t. viii, n. 5, 6. 

3 Ibid. 

4 See his Lordship's truly learned letters in answer to Bailey, passim. 
Ed. 1852. 



12 The English Reformation. 

Church of the living God may become apostate, and may, 
instead of professing Christ's creed, set up some idol of 
Gentilism for the adoration of her followers. The decla- 
ration of the Homilies is unphilosophical ; it is worse, it is 
absurd. It is the cry of desperation ; it is the straw which 
the drowning man grasps, in order to escape from ship- 
wreck ; it is the " stop-thief " of the plunderer, who raises 
the cry in order to escape exposure ; it is the perversion 
of the text, Expedit ut unus moriatur ne tota gens per eat : 
the fautors of fallibility would read the text thus : The 
nations of the earth must perish, in order that one may 
survive. Condemned, utterly rejected by the entire of 
Christendom, the new establishment was placed in this 
dilemma ; it was either obliged to denounce a world or to 
denounce itself. It chose the hazardous and suicidal act 
of denouncing the world ; but in doing so, it seems to 
have forgotten that there was a world to laugh at the 
foolish act, and that whilst it proclaimed its own faHibility, 
it published its own worthlessness, as a system of divine 
faith. 

From the records of the New Testament, which were 
written after the Church had been planted and spread to 
a considerable extent, and which, as we shall hereafter 
demonstrate, are proved to be authentic, genuine, and 
inspired by that very same principle of authority, which 
we have alleged in favour of the inerrancy of the Church, 
the truth, which we have been endeavouring to prove, 
may be easily established. I do not say that the texts 
are abstractedly so clear as to carry conviction along with 
them, or are so worded as to force every one to interpret 
them in one way, and one only; for, in fact, what one 
passage is there in the Scriptures, which is not open to 



The English Reformation. 13 

misinterpretation? If the Calvinist and Lutheran differ- 
ently interpret the plain words, " this is my body," do not 
the Socinians and Protestants differ about the meaning 
of an equally clear phrase — " the Word was made flesh" ? 
But what I do fearlessly assert is this ; 1° That neither 
clearer phraseology, nor more numerous texts, can be 
adduced in favour of any truth, than are to be found in 
the pages of the New Testament, in testification of the 
Church's inerrancy; and 2° That every evasion of the 
one meaning of the several passages of Scripture which 
we are about to adduce, may be turned by the infidel and 
dissenter with terrific effect against the whole system of 
Anglicanism. 

The things of the spiritual world, as well as the objects 
of the world around us, to be seen, require some heavenly 
light. Without light, the outer world is a blank ; things 
are as if they were not. But let the sun shed its rays 
around, and what a world of beauty and of loveliness, and 
of endless variety, appears before us. It is indeed the 
same world as was shrouded in darkness, but it was not 
seen, it was not made manifest before the sun's light 
illumined it. So it is too, to a great extent, with another 
work of God — the book of Revelation. Without the light 
of faith, there is darkness there, and God's work appears 
empty and void : forms are undefined, precious treasures 
are unseen, and the heavenly handwriting is shrouded in 
mystery. But shed on that book the heavenly light ; let 
the reader be illumined, and then, — then all will appear 
wonderful : God's wisdom, and providence, and liberality 
manifesting themselves at every turn. The Anglican 
searches for the light : the Catholic has it. Whilst the 
former suspends his assent on principle, until he has be- 



14 Tlie English Reformation. 

come acquainted with at least the letter of the Scriptures, 
the latter, like those whom the Apostles instructed, and 
to whom, eventually, but long after their conversion, were 
committed some inspired writings, reads the Scriptures 
already believing. This belief lights him on his road. 
He already knows what the revelations of Christ are, and 
hence in each page he readily detects, sometimes refer- 
ences to, and principles of faith, whilst at other times, he 
finds the doctrines of his religion expressed in language, 
the clearest and the most emphatic. As instances, in 
point, I will draw the reader's attention to the following 
passages of Holy Writ. 

First, then, what is the description which our Saviour 
gives of the Church which he was about to establish ? Is 
it of a building which is badly founded, and which is 
quickly to pass away — hurled down by the fury of con- 
flicting elements ? No. The building is founded upon a 
rock: "On this rock I will build my Church." 1 The 
Church's foundations are not laid upon sand ; for had they 
been, when the winds blew, and the rains fell, and the 
floods came, the fabric would have fallen ; but they are 
based upon a rock, in order that when " the rains fell, 
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat 
upon that house, it might not fall." 2 The builder was 
indeed the wise one of the Gospel, and his work was to 
give evidence of his wisdom. Nor was our Saviour con- 
tent with emphatically declaring, " I will build my Church 
upon this rock" he distinctly promises that his Church 
shall not be overthrown : " the gates of hell," he adds, 
"shall sot prevail against it" 3 The promise is absolute; 

i S. Matthew, xvi, 18. 2 Ibid, vii, 25, 27. 

3 C'est a dire, que VEgliseneperira jamais. Beausobre, Nouveau Test. 



The English Reformation. 15 

and the existence of the Catholic Church, notwithstanding 
all the defections and trials of eighteen hundred years, is 
the standing proof of the wisdom and power of him who 
made the promise. It exists, not in decay, not as a mere 
antique; but it exists full of life, and full of youthful 
vigour. u The Catholic Church," as Macauley observes, 
" is still sending forth, to the farthest ends of the world, 
missionaries, as zealous as those who landed in Kent with 
Augustine, and still confronting hostile kings, with the 
same spirit with which she confronted Attila. The num- 
ber of her children is greater than in any former age. 
Her acquisitions in the New world have more than com- 
pensated for what she has lost in the Old. Her spiritual 
ascendancy extends over the vast countries which lie 
between the plains of Missouri and Cape Horn, countries 
which, a century hence, may, not improbably, contain a 
population as large as that which now inhabits Europe. 
The members of her communion are certainly not fewer 
than a hundred and fifty millions, and it will be difficult 
to show that all other Christian sects united amount to 
a hundred and twenty millions. Nor do we see any sign 
which indicates that the term of her long dominion is 
approaching. She saw the commencement of all the go- 
vernments, and of all the ecclesiastical establishments that 
now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that 
she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was 
great and respected before the Saxon had set foot on 
Britain, before the French had passed the Ehine, when 
Grecian eloquence still flourished in Antioch, when idols 
were still worshipped in the Temple of Mecca : and she 

vol. i, p. 70, in 1. Ed. 1741. For the meaning of the words " gates of hell," 
see Eosenmuller, in 1. 



16 The English Reformation. 

may still exist in undiminished vigour, when some traveller 
from New Zealand, shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, 
take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to 
sketch the ruins of St. Paul's." " Four times, since the 
authority of the Church of Rome was established in 
Western Christendom, has the human intellect risen up 
against her yoke. Twice that Church remained completely 
victorious. Twice she came forth from the conflict bear- 
ing the marks of cruel wounds, but with the principle of 
life strong within her. When we reflect on the tremen- 
dous assaults which she has survived, we find it difficult 
to conceive in what way she is to perish." 1 

Ye winds and rains, ye proved her ; yet she stands. 

Yes, the Church stands ; why or how, the wisest separatists 
cannot tell. She ought to have perished, but she has not 
— she exists, strong and full of vigour. Why this is, 
the Catholic only can tell ; the Catholic child may teach 
the puzzled historian and philosopher a lesson. One word 
explains the whole mystery : the Church is, because Christ 
founded her on the rock, and promised, that not even the 
mightiest power, the power of infuriated demons, should 
prevail against her. Such is the plain word of Scripture — 
plain to the enlightened — relative to the establishment and 
perpetuity of the Church. When Christ actually sends 
forth his Apostles, to build up the Church on the rock 
which he himself had selected, as the basis, the founda- 
tion of the heavenly structure, his words are equally clear 
and emphatic : "All power," he says, " is given to me in 
heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach (jpMbvfrev<Tu,T&) 
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 

1 Keview of Ranke's History of the Popes, pp. 4, 5, 10, 11, Ed. 1851. 



The English Reformation. 17 

of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching (hldumovTeq) 
them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded 
you ; and, behold, I am with you all the days, even to the 
consummation of the world." The ministerial line has 
begun ; it has been sent forth by him who is omnipotent ; 
it has been sent forth to teach authoritatively all the 
nations of the earth. The task is an arduous one, but 
the teachers are cheered by the assurance that he who has 
all power in heaven and in earth, will be with them. This 
word strengthened Isaac during his sojourn in Gerara, 2 
and secured to Moses God's assistance, when sent forth on 
his arduous task of confronting Pharaoh, and leading the 
Israelites through the wilderness; 3 as it also did to Moses 5 
successor, Josue; 4 it cheered the ever Blessed Virgin, 
when an angel announced his important mission; 5 and 
now it gives confidence to the Christian minister. Not 
for a short while is this assistance promised, it is promised 
" for every day," iyui joigQ fyiwv eiyu ircia-ag rocg vj^ipag, u even 
to the end of time." Then shall all the nations of. the 
earth have been evangelized, and when this has been 
done, time shall be no more. Every word bears out the 
one idea of Christ, expressed in his promise : interpret 
the passage thus, and all is consonance ; affix another 
interpretation, and Christ's rock is only a quicksand, and 
his promise of unceasing assistance, an idle boast. If he 
has not promised to guard, support, secure his Church 

2 Genesis xxvi, 2, 3. 

3 Exodus iii, 11, 12, and Deut. xxxi, 7, 8. 

4 Josue i, 5, 9. - . 

5 Luke i, 28. The phrase, I am with you, uniformly signifies a promise 
of efficacious assistance. Cf. Genesis xxxi, 3, 5; xlvi, 3, 4; Jeremias i, l 
17, 19 ; Acts xviii, 9, 10 ; and the passages referred to in notes 2, 3, 4, 5. 



18 The English Reformation. 

for ever, in the words adduced, in vain shall we search 
for any doctrinal statement, in any other words of Christ : 
the Trinity in Unity, as well as the procession of the Holy 
Spirit, and the consubstantiality of the Son, will assuredly 
remain without so much as the shadow of a proof. To 
return to our text. The words of our divine Saviour, as 
interpreted, contain the verification of former prophecies. 
When the angel described the characteristics of the Mes- 
sias, he used the following language : " He shall be great, 
and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the 
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his 
father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever : 
and of his kingdom there shall be no end." 1 These words 
are little more than a repetition of the prophecy of Daniel : 
" The stone that struck the statue became a great moun- 
tain, and filled the whole earth. But in the days of those 
kingdoms, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that 
shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be 
delivered up to another people : and it shall break in pieces 
and shall consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall 
stand for ever." 2 " I beheld, therefore, in the vision of 
the night, and lo ! one like the Son of Man came with 
the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of 
days, and they presented him before him. And he gave 
]^im power, and glory, and a kingdom : and all peoples, 
tribes and tongues shall serve him : his power is an ever- 
lasting power, which shall not be taken away, and his 

KINGDOM, THAT SHALL NOT BE DESTROYED." 3 And all 

that the prophets foretold, has been further confirmed by 
St. Paul. Contrasting, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, the 

i Luke, i, 31, 33. 2 Ibid, ii, 35, 44. 

s vii, 13, 14 ; Cf. Michseas iv, 6, 7. 



The English Reformation. 19 

Levitical priesthood, and the priesthood of our Redeemer, 
according to the order of Melchisedech, the Apostle says : 
"And the others indeed were made many priests, because, 
by reason of death, they were not suffered to continue : 
but this, for that he continueth for ever, hath an everlasting 
priesthood." " The law maketh priests who have infir- 
mity : but the word of the oath after the law, a Son per- 
fect for ever." 4 The Levitical law passed; but such 
was not to be the character of the Christian dispensation : 
its priesthood and its sacrifice were to be perpetual, and a 
Son perfect for ever, was to confer unceasing honor on the 
law of his own institution. 

Nor did Christ promise only his own directing grace to 
the Church, he conferred on it another privilege. " I will 
ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, 
that he may abide with you for ever" and this Paraclete 
he calls emphatically the Spirit of truth? Thus for ever, 
is the Spirit of truth to inspire the ministerial line. Aided 
by his influence, the minister shall enunciate the truth for 
ever. No day shall come when this Spirit shall not be 
with his ministers ; no day then shall arrive, when the 
Gospel shall not be taught, taught in its entirety, even as 
Christ originally commanded, and to ensure which his own 
and the Holy Spirit's presence is pledged for ever. The 
promise is plain ; the power of the promiser is acknow- 
ledged ; the end of this promise, the continuance of truth 
in the Church for ever, is likewise manifest: who then 
shall dare to gainsay his word which is to last for ever ? 
When Christ then says that he is for ever with his Church, 
who shall say that his Church is not ; when Christ assures 
us that the Spirit of truth abides with the Church, who 

4 Heb. vii, 23, 24, 28. 5 John xiv, 16, 17. Cf. xvi, 13. 



£0 The English Reformation. 

shall assert, that not the Spirit of truth is there, but a 
damnable, idolatrous spirit ? When Christ assures us that 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church, who 
shall deny his words and exclaim, they have prevailed, 
they have prevailed for eight hundred years and more : 
during that length of time, the whole world was plunged 
in damnable Idolatry ? And indeed, when we find Christ 
identifying himself with the teachers, and saying — "he that 
heareth you, heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, de- 
spiseth me," 1 and further remember what we have already 
adduced from the sacred Gospels relative to the continuity 
of the line once commenced of ministers, is it not manifest 
that such a representative body, cannot possibly teach 
otherwise than in accordance with the revelations of Jesus 
Christ. Therefore, according to St. Paul, God gave to the 
Church various orders of ministers — " apostles, evangelists, 
pastors, doctors and prophets, — that henceforth we be no 
more children tossed to and fro, and carried about by every 
wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning 
craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive." 2 What 
if the ministry of the Church could have erred ; what if 
the body of the pastors of the Church could have gone 
astray ; so far from their being useful, they would have 
been a curse to the world. By their errors they would 
have easily misled mankind, and plunged the mass into the 
deepest sink of moral and religious degradation. If there 
had not been a heaven-secured ministry at the commence- 
ment of the Church, St. Paul could not have absolutely 
said i( remember your prelates who have spoken the word 
of God to you ; whose faith follow " 2 — nor could St. John 
have stated that the mode of trying if the spirits were of 

i Luke x, 16. 2 Eph. iv, 11, 14. 



The English Reformation. 21 

God, was to see if people heard the Apostles. " Dearly 
beloved, believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirits if they 
be of God: because many false prophets are gone out into 
the world. We are of God. He that heareth God heareth 
us. He that is not of God, heareth us not. By this we 
know the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error" 3 A test 
of truth was required from the very commencement of the 
Church, and the test was, obedience to and belief in the 
ministry. A similar test would be still more requisite 
when the Church had spread itself over the nations of the 
earth, and had, in the midst of the errors of Gentilism and 
the false teachings of those who had forfeited the faith, to 
make the one revelation manifest. The discriminative 
characteristic continued unchanged, and thus Christians 
were guarded against the innovations of heresy, and mo- 
rally secured from being carried about by every breath of 
doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness 
by which they lie in wait to deceive. Thus again, the 
Church well deserved the designation of " the pillar and 
support of truth." 4 It was easy to know who heard and 
who refused to hear the divinely appointed ministerial 
body ; it was as easy formerly as now : and this known, 
the difference of truth and error was at once manifest. It 
was known who was and who was not a professor of the 
one faith which Christ and the Apostles had taught. The 
Church and its enemies stood forth in open antagonism. 

And now, to examine still more closely, the grounds of 
the Reformation, the position taken in the Homilies and 
involved in the very idea of a reformation such as was 
carried out here in the sixteenth century, to wit, that the 
world had lost the faith once delivered by a cloud of wit- 

3 1 John iv, 1,6. M Tim. iii, 15. 



22 The English Reformation. 

nesses and had become idolatrous ; I would ask, what does 
history state, what do the very stones say, what do all the 
Churches of the world which profess the old faith declare, 
relative to the belief of the Catholic Church during those 
eight hundred years of supposed apostacy ? We will date 
these years from 734 to 1534. During this period the 
idols of Germany were hurled down, and through that 
wild and wide extent of territory was spread the faith of 
Jesus Christ. Men, at the teaching of Boniface, 1 and 
Burchard, and Lullus, and Willibald, and Wenebald, and 
Wigbert, not to name scores of others of our sainted coun- 
trymen who engaged in this noble undertaking, renounced 
idolatry in every form ; and those who formerly had called 
upon Thor and Woden as divinities, thenceforth adored 
one only true and living God, and no more. The writings 
of several of these missioners, as of Boniface and Lullus, 
are still extant : they breathe only one desire, and that 
desire is to see God's holy name honored and adored ; and 
they express joy only at one occurrence, at the conversion 
of the Idolater. In the eighth century, Saxony and Fries- 
land were converted at the preaching of Luidger, and of St. 
Willehad. 2 This zeal for Christ was enduring. In the 
next age, the Sclavonians were converted by SS. Cyril and 
Methodius ; 3 the Bulgarians, Moravians and Bohemians 

1 See Boniface's Letters, as also those of Gregory III, especially Ep. 
46. The Saint's real name was Winfrid. He was born at Kirton in 
Devonshire, a.d. 680. 

2 See his Life, written by Alfrid, and published in the second volume of 
Pertz's Monumenta; and the Life of Willehad by Anschar, Archbishop of 
Hamburgh, 1. c. 

3 For a history of these zealous brothers, see Acta Sanct., die 9 
Martii, as also Assemani, Kalendaria Ecclesise universse, t. iii, p. 175 ; 



The English Reformation. 23 

joyfully yielded to the preaching of the missioners just 
named, and of Adalbert and Paul, sent to them by 
Nicholas I ; and the Danes and Swedes at the voice of 
Anschar, and Ebbo, and Bembert, embraced the saving 
truths of Christianity. 4 Further, when Yladimer embraced 
Christianity, — in which step he was joyfully followed by 
the people over whom he ruled,— towards the close of the 
ninth century, his first act after his return to his country 
was to destroy the idols which he had formerly adored, 
and toss the broken fragments into the Dneiper. 5 Then 
did the idol disappear in the Northern countries, and 
where it had been, was hoisted the banner of the Cross. 
This banner proclaimed Christ to be, ' l the power and the 
wisdom of God." Equally successful was the zeal of the 
Catholic missioners in the tenth age. Owing to the heaven 
blessed toils of Adelbert of Prague, 6 Wolfgang and Radla, 
Christianity was spread among the Hungarians about the 
year 970, as it was too, nearly at the same period, among 
the inhabitants of Poland. In 965 Duke Miecislaw, the first 
Polish king, became a Catholic, 7 and in proof of his sin- 
cerity dismissed the seven wives whom he had married 
whilst yet an infidel. The Poles followed the example of 
their Sovereign, and in testification of their zeal for the law 

Dobrowsky's Essay on these Saints, p. 71 ; and the Letters of Pope John 
VIII, apud Hardouin Condi., vol. vi, p. 61, &c 

4 Histoire de Dannemarc, p. 54, par La Combe. See also Rimbert's 
Life of Anschar, c. 13. We are told that Anschar was inspired to exert 
all his efforts in favour of the Danes. 

5 La Combe's Histoire de Russie, p. 406. 

6 See Acta SS. die 23 Aprilis, c. vi, p. 192, relative to the toils and 
successes of St. Adelbert among the Hungarians. 

7 La Pologne adoroit pour lors les dieux du Paganisme, dont le culte fut 
aboli. La Combe's Histoire de Pologne, p. 376. 



$4 The English Reformation. 

of Jesus Christ, introduced the custom which for ages they 
uniformly observed, of partly unsheathing their swords, at 
the reading of the holy Gospels during the celebration of 
the Mass. The son too of the mighty Eric, surnamed the 
Victorious, Oloff II, embraced the faith, and at the preach- 
ing of Sigafrid, Grimkil and David, both Swedes and 
Norwegians, abandoned the gods of their fathers, and 
openly professed Christianity in the eleventh century. 1 
Europe, once the seat of idolatry of the most degrading 
character, wondering and blessing, found itself at last 
nearly Christian, in consequence of the zeal of missioners 
sent forth by apostolic men, like Gregory the Great and his 
successors in the Roman See, Gregory III and IV, Leo 
IV, Nicholas I, John VIII, &c. Eskill and Ulfrid, and 
Boniface of Camaldoli, continued the work of conversion 
in the North in the eleventh century ; and in the twelfth 
St. Henry was seen toiling in Finland ; and in Pomerania 
St. Otho, commissioned by Honorius II, succeeded in 
extending the faith of Jesus Christ; whilst Nicholas 
Breakspear, himself destined on some after day to be raised 
to the dignity of Christ's Vicegerent on earth, became an 
Apostle to the inhabitants of Norway. Thus was the work 
of conversions continued. The work of conversion was as 
actively prosecuted in the century of Apostacy, as in any 
previous age : then was India evangelized ; Japan em- 
braced the faith, and China was instructed by the Christian 
missioner. And later history is full of facts connected 
with the conversions of North and South America, of 
Brazil, and of a thousand Islands once inhabited by men 
of blood ; of Savages whose instincts seemed to be destruc- 
tive of the very idea of Christianity. In the lands just 
1 Histoire de Suede, p. 30, 



The English Reformation. 2o 

named more were converted to the one faith by the zeal of 
a few individuals, than had been perverted by the human 
systems of Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII, notwithstand- 
ing the rigours of the olden creed when compared with 
the sensualism and lawless tendencies of the modern 
religions. 

Is this the way to spread idolatry ? Is this the proof 
which the Catholic Church has given to the world of her 
adoration of the creature and rejection of God ? Where- 
ever she appeared idols fell, altars sacred to false deities 
were overturned, and the priesthood of Jupiter and Venus, 
Woden and Thor, became extinct. Consult the history of 
Japan and you will discover that the idols Brahma, Vich- 
nou and Butzen, were abandoned at the preaching of the 
Apostles of the Indies, St. Francis Xavier 2 and his Com- 
panions ; and that those who had once been the professors 
of Gentilism died with readiness in the cause of Jesus 
Christ. America will give the same report. The Algon- 
quins whose God was Manithou, the Caraebees who 
adored Cheonien, the Hurons whose principal divinity was 
Okki or Ares-Koui, not to speak of numerous other tribes 
who adored the Sun and a multiplicity of creature gods, 
will testify to the same fact : 3 that then did they turn to 
the living God, when missioners from Rome visited them 
and taught them the saving truths of the Gospel. Then 
did the idol disappear, and the Eternal One become the 
only object of adoration. The Moluches, Taluhets, Diui- 
hets, Tehuelhets, and other inhabitants of Patagonia who 

2 See Pere Charlevoix's History of the Church of Japan, vol. i, 76, &c, 
Bouhour's "Xavier " passim. 

3 See Pere Lafitau's Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, 2>ttssim 1 and 
Robertson's India. 



26 The English Reformation. 

adored a good and an evil principle, trie former called 
Toquichen, and the latter Huecuvu, were taught by the 
Jesuit missioners that there was one God only to be adored, 
and at their preaching numbers were brought over to the 
faith. 1 

Ask the numerous nations which embraced or perpe- 
tuated the faith of Rome, during the eight hundred years 
consigned by the book of Homilies to idolatry, if idolatry 
was inhibited by the missioners sent from, or in commu- 
nion with Rome, and they will reply — yes. Ask them fur- 
ther, if any creature was allowed to be adored — if any one 
was to be adored, save the Eternal God ; and they will 
return an indignant no. Ask them, if the Catholic Church 
tolerated idolatry in any form ; and they will wonder at 
the assurance or the wilful insolence of the interrogator : 
for were not these principles every where advocated, 1° 
That there is but one God ; 2° That God alone is to be 
adored ; and 3° That to give to any creature whatsoever 
the adoration which is due to the one God, is the worst of 
crimes. These principles are, they ever were, advocated 
by Catholicity. Let those who will, deny this statement : 
the gainsayers will only expose their own wickedness, and 
their anxiety to buttress in any way a melancholy ruin. 
From the writings too published by a cloud of witnesses 
who flourished between 734 and 1534, in nearly every 
country which had embraced Christianity, we may readily 
learn what was the faith of our forefathers. These writings 
may be said to be emphatically religious writings ; for in 

1 See the account of one of these missioners, Father Falkner, in his 
History of Patagonia, p. 114, Ed. 1774. The profession of faith which the 
Indians were taught occurs at p. 143. 



The English Reformation. 27 

Catholic times the revelations of God and the fortunes of 
the Church became intimately linked with secular know- 
ledge, as has been correctly stated by a modern writer in 
the British Critic. Now in speaking of the faith of these 
eight hundred years, is there any one author who maintains 
the lawfulness of idolatry ; is there any one who does not 
positively state that idolatry was destroyed by Christianity? 
Search the creeds of the Church. Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost are to be adored as God; this is the distinct state- 
ment of the middle ages : but where is it stated that the 
creature may receive this same honor ? Study the writings 
of the Angel of the Schools, Aquinas, whose opinions and 
works obtained a world-wide celebrity, and you will find 
him proclaiming idolatry a most grievous crime. 2 Consult 
the explanations which Bonaventure and Alexander de 
Ales, not to cite numerous other names, have left behind 
them of the Decalogue, and you will find uniformly that 
Catholicity denounced idolatry in every form, and made 
use of language such as Gerson adopted when he says, 
" ISTos non adoramus imagines, sed refertur honor et ado- 
ratio ad imaginatum." 3 Even beneath the images was 
often found a full development of Catholic belief. I will, 
though really the task may appear to well informed persons 
a work of supererogation, transcribe a few lines from 
Durand 4 in confirmation of this assertion: to Weever I 
must refer the reader for further particulars and proofs. 



Effigiexn Christi qui transis, pronus adora 
Non tamen effigiem, sed quod designat ad 



ignat adora. 

2 2 a 2 re - q. xciv, art. i, ii, iii. 

3 De Decern prseceptis, fol. xxvi, Ed. 1518. 

4 Durand was Bishop of Mende in 1286. The words cited may be found 
in Britton's Architectural Antiquities, vol. iv, p. 49, Ed. 1814. 



28 The English Reformation. 

Esse Deuin, ratione cave, cui contulit esse 
Materiale lapis, effigiale manus. 

Nee Deus est, nee homo, proesens quam cernis imago :. 
Sed Deus est et homo, quern sacra flgurat imago. 

From this class of petrified doctrinal statements, as well 
as from that other Soli Deo honor 1 which often arrests the 
eye as it wanders over the noble arches raised by the 
cowled fraternity, may be gathered the faith of our fore- 
fathers, and the folly of the writers and approvers of the 
second book of Homilies. What again, was the object of 
the holy founders of the Camaldolese, the Cistercians, Car- 
thusians, Gilbertines, Carmelites, Franciscans, Dominicans, 
the poor Clares, the Servites, and Brigittins, not to bring 
before the reader a longer list of venerable religious Orders 
— what, I ask, was the object of these institutions ? Was 
it not to practise the Evangelical Counsels ; to benefit so- 
ciety in every form from a love of Jesus Christ ; to present 
to the world a living, energetic form of Christianity ; to 
testify to all nations how worthy of love was the Eternal 
God, and how for his sake parents, and wives, and chil- 
dren, and lands and money could be abandoned, and a life 
of poverty and hardship not unlike that which the Re- 
deemer himself had selected, could be endured ? Let the 
writers of, and believers in the Homilies, call these tens of 
thousands, idolaters, if they will ; but let them do so, after 
they have shown the same appreciation of the Gospel and 
an equal willingness to abandon all things for the love of 
Jesus Christ. The idolaters of former days, if such they 
were, held in higher estimation the teachings and example 

1 At Fountain's Abbey, these words were~ boldly written in stone over 
the great arch of, I think, the northern transept. I saw them in the 
year 1841. 



The English Reformation. 29 

of their Lord, than the so-called Christians, who are so 
loud in denouncing the professors of the olden creed. The 
former, seven times each day sung the praises of Almighty 
God; the air became vocal with their praises of the Deity; 
how often do their accusers pray ? "When the edict went 
forth that the praises of God as once sung should cease, 
did not the worshippers of royalty, those who exchanged 
the priest for a king, imitate their prototypes in the plain 
of Dura, and the councillors of Darius who so zealously 
enforced the decrees of the Medes and Persians, 2 and leave 
Catholics alone to praise God ? The men of the middle 
ages covered this and every other country with noble 
cathedrals, and churches and chapels ; they raised up the 
memorials of Christ's love, and of man's correspondence 
with that love, and these were to be found in every street 
and market-place and high-road: witness it ye noble 
fabrics, Canterbury, and Lincoln, and York, and Durham, 
and Westminster, and Peterborough, and Gloucester, and 
"Winchester, and Salisbury, and "Worcester, and Exeter ; 
witness it ye ruins of Woburn, and Reading, and Netley, 
and St. Mary's York, and Fountains, and Bolton, and Ely, 
and Chester, and Tavistock, and Tintern, and Shaftesbury, 
and St. Albans, and Furness ; witness it ye spots in Eng- 
land still bearing the name of the Cross, that Cross which 
formerly consecrated the country and made it holy ground; 
witness it ye sacred memorials which still exist in France, 
Belgium, Germany, the Tyrol, and Italy, of blessed 
Saints, who fought the good fight and kept the faith ; and 
are these and such like men, the architects and builders of 
Christian temples and of Christian memorials, still to be 
branded as idolaters ? What proofs will posterity find in 

2 Daniel vi, 8, 13. 



30 The English Reformation. 

the railways and docks, and exchanges of this country ; in 
the lions and dragons, and portentous figures of griffins, 
and pagan gods and goddesses, which have gained admit- 
tance into the very churches and chapels whence Christ's 
blessed Image and the memorials of his Saints have been 
ignominiously expelled, of the Christianity of the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth century ? What evidences will they 
find here of a self-sacrificing, a mammon-hating, a God- 
loving religion ? If Catholic memorials which exist under 
a thousand beauteous religious forms, have not secured 
our forefathers against the sweeping accusation of universal 
idolatry, surely posterity will have to seek for some as yet 
undiscovered term, expressive of the atheism of after 
times, and of a recklessness of every thing, save worldly 
comfort and accumulation of perishable riches. 

Is not even. the authorized Calendar of the Common 
Prayer book, filled with the names of Saints, who lived 
during the period so awfully denounced by the small sec- 
tion, which originally subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles, 
and read, by order of Parliament, the Homilies to the 
people ? Dunstan, and Swithun, and the King Confessor, 
and Hugh of Lincoln, and St. Edmund, are names familiar 
to every one who has looked into the Prayer book ; whilst 
the churches and the streets of England bear evidence to 
the traditional sanctity of Saints Ethelbert, Editha, Wol- 
stan, Olave, Laurence, Isidore, Hedwiges, Giles, Thomas 
of Aeon, Chad, &c. And this list might be extended — 
" even to the crack of doom," did we but wish to show 
how every other country holds up before us scores of 
blessed men, illustrious for their sanctity during the 
eight hundred years referred to in the Homilies. But 
enough surely has been already written on such a matter 



The English Reformation. 31 

as this ; and I trust that this general survey of facts may- 
tend to stop further denunciations of that Church which, 
during the eight hundred > years preceding the English 
Reformation, preserved the faith as well as the letter of the 
Gospel. The task of defending the Church of the world 
against an unfounded accusation emanating from a handful 
of men, — they were no more who drew up the Articles and 
the Homilies, — entails more pain than trouble, and is cal- 
culated to awaken rather feelings of pity for the accuser, 
than anxiety for the accused. Were a few of the accused 
only named ; were the reader informed that such men as 
Egbert and Alcuin, Ratramn and Walafrid Strabo, Florus, 
Rabanus Maurus, Radbert, Hincmar and Scotus, Alfred 
the Great, Luitprand and Ingulph, Lanfranc and Anselm, 
Saints Malachy, Bernard, and the martyr of Canterbury 
a'Becket, and John of Salisbury — the friend and biogra- 
pher of St. Thomas — William of Malmesbury, Innocent 
III, Stephen Langton, Alexander de Hales and Matthew 
Paris, James de Voragine, Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, 
Occam, Suso, Thaulerus, Gerson, Pius II, a Kempis, and 
Picus de Mirandola, have individually been condemned, 
swept away from the world of Christianity, and hurried by 
their enemies into the temple of Paganism, there to offer 
up an idolatrous worship, surely every man of learning 1 
would be filled with the deepest indignation. And yet, 
these are the names of a few individuals only, out of the 

1 Turner observes that " Thomas a Kempis is but one amid a numerous 
society of congenial minds, among which, none more clearly show the 
good that was taught, or will more gratify the spirit that loves and 
cultivates the higher degrees of devout feeling, than the little volume on 
the Union of the Mind with the Deity, by the celebrated Franciscan and 
Philosopher, Albertus Magnus."— Turner's England during the Middle 
v, p. 71. 



32 The English Reformation. 

thousands who could be at once referred to, who, though 
denounced as idolaters, would have rather spilt their blood 
than have been guilty of idolatry. How shall we account 
then for this act of folly, on the part of the assailants of 
Catholicity ? Why they had a cause to support, a system 
to establish ; and who knows not to what lengths partizans 
go ? They had to uphold Anglicanism, and to maintain its 
divinity ; and since this could not otherwise be done — for 
their system was new and opposed to every thing pre- 
viously established — than by asserting that the whole 
world had denied the one faith, the position named was 
assumed and defended : — in what manner we have already 
seen. The explanation given by Bossuet of the continuance 
of Paganism, is applicable to the maintainer of the decla- 
ration of the Articles and of the Homilies : " Enchante par 
ses Idoles, il etait devenu sourd a la voix de la nature." 1 
Court favour, passion, avarice, individual interest, all 
pleaded in favour of the new creed here ; and men were 
too willing to listen to these pleadings. And as Paganism 
through its leading professors, had recourse to every 
changing expedient when assailed by the arguments of 
Christianity, so was it with the professors of the new 
creed. At first the leading error of the world, was its 
adherence to Pome. Images were maintained ; the Mass 
was still offered up, and transubstantiation was so fixedly 
believed in, that the denial of it subjected the disbelievers 
to the severest penalties. Elizabeth seemed anxious to 
repudiate the title of head of the Church ; not indeed 
from a willingness to submit again to the papal supremacy 
— for the Pontiff who had bastardized her had wounded a 

1 See Banier, " La Mythologie, &c." torn ii, p. 267, Ed. 1738, and 
Bossuet, " Discours sur 1'histoire universelle." 



The English Reformation. 33 

sovereign's pride too much to expect forgiveness — but from 
a consciousness of the impropriety of a woman's bearing 
the title of head of the Church. But during her reign the 
Mass was no longer looked upon as a holy Sacrifice ; it 
was declared to be a blasphemous fable, and penalties were 
fixed against those who dared either to offer it up, or even 
assist at it. There was then, as now, always something to 
alienate the mind from Catholicity ; but that something 
Varied with circumstances. If now, a person should se- 
riously assert, what the Homilies state, that sacred images 
cannot be kept in churches or elsewhere without the cer- 
tain danger of idolatry, I imagine that his sanity would be 
considered in this pictorial and artistic age, in this day of 
architectural reformation and imitation of mediaeval art, 
as more than doubtful. And yet, this was the teaching of 
Anglicanism ; and not its mere teaching : it was made a 
practical truth, to which ruined churches, mutilated figures, 
and emptied niches plainly testified. Every change, how- 
ever, tore the Establishment more and more from Rome ; 
and the more it was severed, the more pleasing it was sup- 
posed to be to the Deity. It was a first, a necessary 
principle of the new creed, that Catholic belief was opposed 
to revelation ; next, that this belief was idolatrous ; and 
since this belief was historically proved to have been the 
belief of the world for a long series of years, another de- 
claration was requisite : to make England orthodox, a 
world was given up to idolatry. Such were the downward 
tendencies of a system which cut off England from the 
world ; destroyed all authority ; and nullified the teach- 
ings and traditions of more than eight hundred years. 

From the general principles and practices of the new 
religion, specific conclusions were drawn sadly adverse to 

c2 



34 The English Reformation. 

the old faith. It was stated in the 31st Article, that the 
Mass was a blasphemous fable ; and in the 28th, that the 
doctrine of transubstantiation was adverse to the plain 
words of Scripture ; and in the 22nd a similar declaration 
was made relative to images and the invocation of the 
Saints. Starting from these premises, it was stated, and 
even sworn to, by every person who wished to qualify 
himself for parliamentary, magisterial, or even still less 
important public functions, " that the invocation or adora- 
tion of the Virgin Mary, or any other Saint, and the 
Sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church 
of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous." 1 The Pro- 
testant was taught that the Saints were not to be invoked, 
that images were not to be retained, that Christ was not in 
the holy Eucharist verily and indeed, and that the Mass, 
instead of being the thrice holy Sacrifice of which prophets 
had spoken, and which was looked upon as propitiatory 
for the living and the dead, was nothing better than a 
blasphemous rite. In accordance with this belief, the 
heaviest anathemas were uttered against the Catholic by 
the Protestant, and in his zeal the latter denounced in 
unmeasured terms all whc differed from him. To the 
Anglican this denunciation may be very gratifying, but it 
proves nothing. If he denounce the Catholic, will not the 
Catholic denounce him? If he, resting on his own in- 
ferences, or the inferences of some others just as fallible as 
himself, both as reasoners and as biblical expositors, pro- 
claim certain practices of Catholicity idolatrous, will not 
the Catholic of every country of the globe pity his assu- 

1 See the declaration against Catholicity, 30 Charles II, st. 2, c. i, in 
Burns' Eccles. Laws, vol. iii, 17. As also Burnet's Articles, p. 239 and 
p. 341, where he absolutely condemns Catholics of idolatry. 



The English Reformation. 35 

ranee, and return the accusation, but on better and surer 
grounds, of false worship ? The Protestant will be con- 
demned for not adoring God in the holy Eucharist, and he 
will farther be branded as grossly ignorant for refusing to 
honor blessed Saints, but especially the first of Saints, the 
Virgin Mother of God, whom God himself has so signally 
honored. He will be told further, that the men who pro- 
claim the Sovereign, and others perhaps not half so 
exalted or half so virtuous, worthy of honor, can hardly, 
with consistency, refuse to honor those whose elevation is 
far above all worldly dignity ; and that those who believe 
that the prayers of sinful mortals may be asked, 3 cannot, 
with reason, refuse to ask the intercession of the sinless 
multitude who stand before the throne of God. In fine, he 
will be informed that the men who bow to the throne of 
royalty, and on bended knee receive the sacramental bread 
and wine, 3 and bend the head at the name of Jesus Christ, 
will not easily justify their irreverence before the images 
of Christ, and of his Blessed Mother, and of those others 
who now encircle the throne of the Deity. Nature itself 
would have answered the Protestant objection, had not a 
false training obscured the light of reason. Only then are 
men anti-Catholic when the name of religion is mentioned; 
at other times they are as decorous and as reverential, and 
as fond of ceremonies as Catholics themselves whilst in the 

2 See Eomans xv, 30-1. Coloss. iv, 3, 4. Ephesians vi, 18, 19, 20. Cf. 
Genesis xx, 7. 1 Samuel vii, 5, 8. 

3 These practices are enjoined by authority. In the injunctions of 
Elizabeth, 1559, and in 18th Canon of the second year of James I, it is 
ordered that " At the name of Jesus due reverence he made of all persons, 
young and old, with lowness of courtesie, and uncovering of the heads 
of mankind, as thereunto doth necessarily belong." — Wilkins' Councils, 
vol. iv, p. 188, 382. 



36 The English Reformation. 

temples of their God. Tertullian's position that every man 
is naturally a Christian, may be extended. Every man is 
naturally a Catholic. The principle of authority; reve- 
rence for exalted worth ; the acknowledgment of mystery, 
and the necessity of submitting reason to a higher autho- 
rity, which characterize the true faith, are glaringly con- 
spicuous too in Protestant secular action. Authority — a 
living teaching authority — is, under all circumstances, 
appealed to ; reverence characterizes every step in society ; 
and dependance on others is a principle uniformly insisted 
on. Our answer, then, not an individual answer, but the 
collective answer of the Catholic Church to the railing 
accusations of superstition and idolatry, is this : " Ye err 
neither knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." 
We adore one true, living God, and no more ; Him we 
adore in the holy Mystery ; Him we adore, and love, and 
invoke, through His Saints ; and Him again we pause to 
honor, as often as we behold the memorials raised up to 
remind us of the outpourings of grace on the Cross, or of 
the reception of grace in the persons of the Saints. If 
still the accusations be urged, we must answer in the in- 
dignant language which St. Jerome addressed to Vigilan- 
tius : " Thou dolt ! who at any time adored the martyrs ? 
who could fancy that a mortal was God ?...." "If the 
apostles and martyrs, while still in the body, can pray for 
others at a time when they must be still anxious for them- 
selves, how much more can they do so after their crowns 
and victories and triumphs ? " 1 " We worship not, we 
adore not, I do not say relics only, but not even the sun 
and moon, not angels, not archangels, not the Cherubim, 
not the Seraphim, &c, lest we serve the creature rather 
i T. ii, adv. Vig. n. 6, 7, p. 392. T. i, Ep. cix, ad Riparium, n. 1, 2. 



The English Reformation. 37 

than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore ; but we 
honor the relics of martyrs, that we may adore Him whose 
martyrs they are. We honor the servants, that the honor 
given to the servants may redound to the honor of the 
Lord, who says, he that receiveth yon, receiveth me." 
" Christ took upon him earth from the earth, because flesh 
is from the earth, and of the flesh of Mary he took flesh. 
And because he walked here in the very flesh, and that 
very flesh he gave to us to eat unto salvation, — but no one 
eats that flesh, unless he has first adored it, — we have found 
in what way the footstool of the Lord may he adored, and 
we not only do not sin by adoring, but we sin by not 
adoring." 2 The first Christians were called Atheists — 
" we are branded with the name of atheists," says Justin 
Martyr; 3 and indeed the apostate Julian, and the vicious 
Lucian, hardly ever designate them in any other way. 4 Nay 
more, this accusation was of long standing. Even Ter- 
tullian in his Apology, was forced to rebut the calumny. 
" You say, (he observes) we are atheists, and will not be at 
the expence of a sacrifice for the life of the Emperors." 5 
The object of their adoration was said to be a malefactor ; 
" They make a God of a malefactor, who for his crimes 
suffered the most dishonorable death ; and cursed crosses of 
wood are a part of their religion — such altars are indeed 
good enough for these profligates, who worship the gallows 
they deserve." 6 Nay more, " It is bruited about, that . . 
they worship the consecrated head of an ass." 7 " Some of 

2 S. Augustin, t. iv, in Ps. 98, n. 9, col. 1520. Paris Ed. by Gaume. 
The text commented on is " Adore his footstool, for it is holy." 

3 Apol. i, n. 5. 4 See Lucian's ipevdofiavT, p. 828. 

5 Apol. c. x, n. 1. 6 Minucius Felix, Oct. p. 65, Ed. 1709. 

» Ibid, p. 64, 141. 



38 The English Reformation. 

you/' observes Tertullian, " have dreamed yourselves into 
the belief, that the head of an ass is the Christian's God." l 
Did the practices of Christianity countenance such state- 
ments ? Assuredly not. Whence, then, did the accusa- 
tions proceed ? Simply from the most criminal ignorance. 
And how were the objections met ? The apologists showed 
the absurdity of the statements, declared what their real 
faith was, and what the object of their adoration ; — this 
they did: it was all they could do. Our course is not 
dissimilar. We show how monstrous must that accusation 
be, uttered by a few individuals, which the world denied 
and denies ; and we state that the only real object of our 
adoration is the triune God. If our enemies will not be- 
lieve us, let them look to it. We are not guilty. 

And, indeed, have not some of the most distinguished 
members of the Protestant Church fully vindicated us, 
both in general and particular, against the horrid and 
unfounded charges in question? "Let f not/' says the 
learned and honest Thorndike, " let not them who charge 
the Pope to be Antichrist, and the Papists, idolaters, lead 
the people by the nose, to believe that they can prove 
their supposition, when they cannot." 2 And hence it was 
that he openly denounced the Homily on the Peril of 
Idolatry, and declared that " in this particular, he must 
have leave to think it fails, as it evidently does in others." 3 

1 Apol. c. xvi. 2 Just Weights and Measures, c. 2, 

3 Epil. 3rd part, p. 363; see too Just Weights and Measures, p. 67. 
Dr. Heylin, in his introduction to Cyprianus Anglicus, p. 14, seems to have 
thought much the same of the Homilies as Thorndike. He ohserves, that 
" the vehemence used in those Homilies was not against images as in- 
tolerable in themselves, hut as they might he made in those broken and 
unsettled times, an occasion of falling. But that people being well in- 



The English Reformation. 39 

Bishop Parker speaks most pointedly in our defence : " So 
black a crime as idolatry/' he says, {t that is, no less than 
renouncing God, is not lightly to be charged against any 

party of Christians Before so bloody an indictment 

be preferred against the greatest part of Christendom, the 
nature of the thing ought to be well understood. The 
charge is too big for a scolding word, and how inconsistent 
soever idolatry may be with salvation, I fear so unchari- 
table a calumny, if it prove one, can be of no less damnable 
consequences. It is a piece of inhumanity, that outdoes 
the savageness of the cannibals themselves, and damns at 
once both body and soul. And yet, after all, we have no 
other ground for the hold conceit, than the crude and rash 
assertions of some popular divines, who have no other 
measures for truth or zeal, hut hatred to popery." — 
Reasons for Abrogating the Test, p. 72-3. (i I am pained," 
says the late Dr. Parr, " by the outrageous invectives that 
are thrown out against the Church of Rome : and I must 
further confess, that they appear to me, not only unjust but 
even inhuman." " I hope to find a better way of showing 
myself either worthy to live or fit to die, within the pale 
of the Church of England, than by insulting Roman Ca- 
tholics, with the opprobrious imputations of superstition 
and idolatry." 

Nor are less powerful arguments made use of, in vindi- 
cation of those images which the Homilies denounce, by 
other distinguished professors of Protestantism. For years, 
as is evident from the Zurich letters, Queen Elizabeth 
would not give up the crucifix which stood in her chapel ; 
and when James I was at Edinburgh, he silenced the 

structed in the right use of them, images may be still kept for good uses 
in Churches, and for stirring up of devotion.. ." 



40 TJie English Reformation. 

meddling bishops, who would have prevented him from 
placing religious memorials in his Oratory, by adopting 
the following language : " You can endure/' he said, 
"lions, and dragons, and devils to be figured in your 
Churches, but will not allow the like place to Patriarchs 
and Apostles." 1 This word either was, or should have 
been, answer enough for the levelling Calvinists. Dr. 
Parker, in the work already cited, says: f; Asto_the use 
of images in the worship of God, I cannot but wonder 
at the confidence of these men, to make so bold a charge 
against them (the Catholics), when the images of the 
Cherubim were commanded by God himself; which in- 
stance is so plain and obvious to every reader, there being 
nothing more remarkable in the Old Testament, than the 
honor done to the Cherubim, that it is a much greater 
wonder to me that these men would advance the objection 
of idolatry so groundlessly, and can so slightly rid them- 
selves of so pregnant a proof against it." 2 Still clearer 
on this head is Montague, Bishop of Norwich. " The 
pictures of Christ, of the blessed Virgin, and the saints, 
may be had in houses, set up in Churches ; respect and 
honor may be given to them ; the Protestants give it ; you 
say they must not have latria, so say we ; you give them 
dulia; I quarrel not with the word, though I could. 
There is a respect due to the pictures of Christ and his 
saints. If you call this dulia, we give it too ; let doctrine 
and practice go together, we agree." 3 

Nor is there less distinctive evidence in favour of the 
lawfulness of invoking the saints. " I grant," says Mon- 
tague, " that Christ is not wronged in his mediation. It 

1 Spotswood's History, p. 530. 2 Reasons for Abrog. Test, p. 130. 
3 Gagger Gagged, 300. 



The Eiiglish Reformation. 41 

is no impiety to say holy Mary, pray for me. Holy Peter, 
pray for me." 4 Thorndike states, ' ' that all the fathers of 
both the Greek and Latin Churches, have spoken to the 
saints, and desired their assistance"; 5 and he adds, else- 
where, 6 that "to dispute whether we are to honor the 
saints or not, were to dispute whether or no we are to be 
Christians. And whether this be religious or civil, no- 
thing but the equivocation of words can make disputable." 
Indeed, it does not require much mind, to understand the 
nature of this veneration. As long as "pray for us" in- 
volves the idea of supplication, on the part of even saints, 
so long will it be felt that the saints are honored as saints, 
as holy creatures, but not as gods. Our enemies must 
confound all ideas, however distinct, — must ignore the 
obvious meaning of clear words, to justify the declaration 
of the Articles and the oath of the legislature. They 
must, in a word, prove to the world, that even a primer 
is too deep a book for their comprehension, and that it 
is questionable whether or not St. Paul, as well as all the 
ancient fathers of God's Church, 7 did not make gods of 
men. I leave them in the position in which the odium 
theologicum has placed them. Indeed, who has ever read 

4 On the Invocation of Saints, p. 118. 

5 Ep. to Trag. « Epil. part iii, p. 353. 

7 Montague, writing on this universal belief, says : " It is the common 
voice, with general concurrence, without contradiction, of reverend and 

learned antiquity And I see no cause to dissent from them (the 

Catholics) touching the intercession of this kind. Christ is not thus 
wronged in his mediation. And it is no impiety to say as the Catholics 
do: Holy Mary, pray for me." — Inv. of /Saints. 

Even Luther allows the universality of this practice: "I allow, with the 
whole Church, and believe, that the saints in heaven should be invoked. 2 ' 
— De Purg. quorumd. Art. 



42 The English Reformation. 

the statement of the catechism of the Council of Trent, 
which is an exposition of the faith of the sixteenth century, 
and of all former times, and can still dare to accuse the 
Church of idolatry ? "■ We entreat," are the clear words 
of the Catechism, " the Almighty to confer upon us some 
blessing; or to deliver us from some misfortune. But, 
since the saints are more pleasing to him than we are, we, 
hence, entreat them to lend us their assistance : and to 
obtain for us the grants of our requests. For this reason, 
the forms of our petition, on each occasion, are widely 
different. Addressing ourselves to God, we say to him : 
have mercy on us ; hear us. "Whereas, speaking to the 
saints, we merely say : pray for us." 1 

If, as a last support of a worthless cause, stress be laid 
on certain phrases, such as worship, adoration, or other 
similar terms; or on certain outward marks of respect, 
such as kneeling, kissing, use of lights, and a multitude 
of not dissimilar expressions of regard ; and inferences be 
drawn, irrespective of the avowed and dogmatical teaching 
of the Church, unfavourable to us, — and on such things 
as these, Anglican ministers, as well as those committed 
to their charge, love to dwell, — I would briefly observe, 
in answer to such pitiful objections : 1° That no Anglican 
would wish the divinity of the sacred writings to be thus 
tested. In a thousand places, phrases are applied to the 
Deity which must be explained away ; which cannot, con- 
sistently with either natural or revealed religion, be 
applied to God. Is God corporeal? Has he eyes, or 
ears, or hands, or feet? Is he subject to change, or igno- 
rant? Is he overcome by passion? In his anger does 
he swear ? Is his being limited ? and has he to descend 
1 Cat. Bom. Tit. de Invoc. Sand. 



The English Reformation. 43 

to see and learn what is taking place on earth ? And yet 
in nearly every page of the Old Testament, words ex- 
pressive of such ideas occur ! How are such expressions 
to be explained, and on what fixed, immovable principles 
are the orthodox explanations based? Again: if in one 
place or more the Scriptures say, "to God alone honor 
and glory," do they not elsewhere say, "honor the king" 
— "honor thy father and thy mother " — " glory and honor 
and peace to every one that worketh good, to the Jew 
first, and also the Greek"? And if God is said to have 
been worshipped, is not this same word applied in the 
very same sentence to the respect exhibited to the earthly 
sovereign — " all the congregation bowed down their heads 
and worshipped the Lord and the king." 2 In fine; if 
adoration be applied to the worship given to God, is it 
not likewise used for the reverence given to men, by 
Abraham, 3 by David, 4 and other holy personages ? How 
shall these words be interpreted ? Why shall I say, that 
the worship given to God was an act of divine worship, 
whilst the word applied to the honor given to the creature 
only designates an inferior mode of reverence ? Why 
shall I say that Abraham and David truly adored God, 
and that they did not adore in this same manner, man ? 
The words are the same, and the prostration was the 
same. On what principle am I to explain these words 
and acts, and prove an important and essential difference ? 
If I admit no difference ; then do I condemn the father of 
the faithful, and the holy ones of the old law, as idolaters. 

2 1 Chron. xxix, 20. Our mayors are " worshipful," and the Protestant 
husband says " With my tody I thee worship." Can I justly exclaim, " Thou 
wicked idolater " ? If not, why not ? 

3 Genesis xxiii, 7. 4 1 Kings xxiv, 9. 



44 The English Reformation. 

This cannot be done : it is in direct opposition to what we 
know of their characters: how shall I then justify the 
language of Scripture and the outward acts of those whose 
names I have referred to? A real answer, an admissible 
justification of the inspired words, will be an answer to 
the accusations of anti-catholics, and a justification of the 
language and conduct of the Universal Church. 

What Catholic action is there which the enemies of 
Catholicity can accuse of idolatry ? Is it kneeling ? Do 
not Protestants kneel before the bread and wine of the 
Sacrament ? Is it bowing ? Do not they bow to the 
throne, at the sound of the holy name, to one another ? Is 
it the light which is sometimes burnt before the holy 
image ? Are they ignorant that such lights were and are 
still burned in the East before statues of kings ? and have 
they no illuminations in honor of worldly triumphs, of 
earthly sovereigns? no fires enkindled on the festival 
of Guy Fawkes — the festival of religious hate and 
rancour — a commemoration at the recurrence of which, 
as is well observed by a recent Protestant writer, every 
Protestant should hang down his head in shame; for it 
was Protestant cruelty alone, which drove some dozen 
Catholics almost to desperation. As Chamier, 1 a Calvin- 
istic minister, has well observed, there is not a word or 
action expressive of supreme adoration, which is not 
applied to an inferior kind of honor, such as man may 
exhibit to man, in the pages of sacred Scripture. Lan- 
guage and action are too limited for the full expression of 
all our ideas and intentions. To interpret these aright, 
circumstances and known belief must be considered atten- 

1 See his words in Ha-warden's " True CJiurch, &c," vol. ii, p. 259, 
Ed. 1715. 



Tlie English 'Reformation. 45 

lively. If these be overlooked, we shall assuredly expose 
ourselves to the danger of breaking one of the divine 
commandments, " thou shalt not bear false witness against 
thy neighbour/' at the very moment that we are accusing 
our neighbour of violating another/ which enjoins the 
adoration of God, and forbids the worship of the creature. 
In elucidation of this question, if further elucidation be 
possible, I will translate a passage from a Protestant En- 
cyclopedia, 3 which enters somewhat fully into this matter. 
"If Lot," it is said, "prostrate himself before the two 
angels who visit him, this is a civility done to two stran- 
gers ; if Jacob prostrate before Esau, this is the deference 
which a younger has for an elder brother; if Solomon 
prostrate before Bethsabee, it is the act of a son honoring 
a mother ; if Nathan prostrate before David, it is a subject 
who offers his respects to his prince. But if a man pros- 
trate himself, whilst praying to God, then it is the creature 
who adores his Creator. I suppose that an Is- 
raelite has prostrated himself in approaching his sovereign ; 
nobody will accuse him of idolatry. If he had done the 
same before an idol, this same bodily action would have 
been interpreted as an act of idolatry. But why? Be- 
cause we should have inferred from this action, that he 
regarded the idol as a true divinity, and that he had 
towards it those feelings which are involved in adoration, 
according to the restricted sense which this term has in 
our language. What then, must we think of what the 

2 See some valuable observations on this matter, in the eloquent and 
learned "Letters" of the present Bishop of Newport, p. 117; as also 
Lingard's Tracts, p. 108, Ed. 1813. 

3 Encyclopcedie, Ed. d' Yverdun, torn, i, art. Adorer. The original words 
may he found cited by Perrone, Prselect. Theol. vol. iv, p. 341, Ed. Lou- 
vain, 1839. 



46 The English Reformation. 

Catholics do in honor of the saints, relics, the wood of the 
cross ? They will not deny that this exterior cultus re- 
sembles entirely that which they pay in honoring God 
externally. But hate they the same ideas of the saints 
and of the cross, as they have of God ? I do not believe 
that any person can justly charge them with this ; and 
hence it appears to me, that we ought not to denounce 

them as idolaters If we limited ourselves to saying, 

that a cultus rendered to beings who are really ignorant of 
that which is done to honor them ; that prayers addressed to 
creatures who are powerless to do what is asked of them, 
is an unreasonable cidtus, I should not hesitate to sub- 
scribe to this ; but I would not accuse the Catholics of 
idolatry." The whole charge, as Lingard has long ago 
observed, "appears to be the blundering job of some 
clumsy workman;" — who this workman was, we shall have 
occasion to show a little later. — It dies felo de se ; and a 
jury may be impannelled to decide whether it deserves 
the honor of Christian burial." 1 

On the charge derived from the adoration of the Holy 
Eucharist, I shall only say a few words, because a few 
words will suffice. We adore the Eucharist, because 
Clirist the very God is there. We believe his word ; we 
will not gainsay it, though the Jew and the infidel may 
ask, " how can he give us his flesh to eat," or may say, 
" this is a hard saying." We believe before we receive 
the Holy of Holies, a harder word than this — "This is my 
body, this is my blood" ; we believe in a Trinity ; we 
believe in an eternal generation ; tee believe in an eternal 
procession of the Holy Spirit, we believe in the overpow- 
ering mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, with 
1 Lingard's Tracts, p. 251. 



The English Reformation. 47 

all its consequences : we believed all these things be- 
fore we fell down and adored Christ in the Holy Mystery. 
If Christ be in the Sacrament, he is as adorable there as 
in heaven. God is ever a hidden God. He is adored, 
not because he is visible in his majesty to the eye; not 
because we apprehend his infinity; but, because he is 
God : wherever he is we adore him ; and if, for love of 
us, he condescend to dwell corporally among us, like the 
Magi, we will fall down, and present him our gold, our 
frankincense, and myrrh. His star, ever points out the 
spot in the temple where he abides ; and, under the gui- 
dance of that star, we pay our adoration. Christ, I repeat 
it, we adore ; nor more nor less. Were he not in the holy 
mystery, we should not adore ; but being there, his nature 
demands nothing less than adoration. Protestants deny 
his presence : we wonder not then, that they adore not. 
But let not these men teach us what faith is. We have a 
higher instructer than an earthly sovereign, and a better 
tribunal than an English Parliament, to guide us in mat- 
ters of religion. Christ has said, "This is my body," 
"This is my blood": and the Church, which is the "pillar 
and support of truth," — the Church which is ruled and 
guided by its heavenly founder, and by the Paraclete, the 
Spirit of truth, teaches us what that word means, and 
bids us fall down to worship, with hearts overflowing with 
gratitude, him, who is ever in the adorable sacrament ; 
that mystery which has been well called " the generative 
principle of love," the principle of light, and the heart 
through which the life-blood of Catholicity flows. 2 

What we maintain, is allowed by the most respectable 
names which Protestantism can boast of. Bishop Andrews, 
2 See Gebet's admirable work on the Holy Eucharist. 



48 The English Reformation. 

speaking of King James I, says, " The king acknowledges 
Christ to be truly present in the Eucharist, and to be 
adored. I also, with Ambrose, adore the flesh of Christ 
in the mysteries." l Thorndike is equally explicit : " I 
suppose (he says) the body and blood of Christ may be 
adored wheresoever they are ; and must be adored by a 
good Christian, where the custom of the Church, which 
a Christian is obliged to communicate with, requires it," 3 
" If Jesus Christ," says Calvin, " be present in the Eu- 
charist, then, no doubt, it is necessary there to adore 
him." 3 And Beza calls this same Heshusius, against 
whom Calvin wrote, " an ass," for denying the obligation 
of adoring the Eucharist, in case Christ were truly and 
really there. And well might Beza thus designate the 
man who denied so obvious a truth: all but stupid or 
irrational creatures must see its obviousness. In fine, 
Bishop Forbes, observes, that "the sounder Protestants 
make no difficulty about adoring Christ in the Eucharist. 
It is (he continues) a very monstrous error of certain 
rigid Protestants, to deny that Christ is to be adored in 
the Eucharist, by any other adoration than that of the 
mind." 4 

From what has been hitherto said, it follows, that the 
statement of the Homilies, and the only reason which 
could apparently justify the establishment of an inde- 
pendent and isolated Church in England, namely, the 
defection of a world from that code of doctrines which 
Jesus Christ originally promulgated in person, and through 
the ministry of his Apostles, is nugatory and false. For 
1° We have seen that the world could not thus err : this 

» Reply to Bellarm. c. 8, p. 194. 2 Epilogue 1. iii, c. 30, p. 350. 

3 Calv. contra Heshusium. i De Eucharistia. 



The English Reformation. 49 

has been proved from the consentient testimony of a body 
which could neither deceive nor be deceived, and from 
the express declarations of our Lord and Saviour. 2° The 
charge of idolatry we have scattered to the winds : its 
general absurdity has been shewn at great length, and the 
specific charges, as well as the general one, we have fur- 
ther seen rejected with shame and indignation, by abler 
men by far than those are, who still urge their railing 
accusations. So far from images leading from God, they 
remind man of him, and force him as it were to remember 
God's mercy and power; and as for the invocation and 
veneration of the saints, whilst by the latter act we pay 
honor to that which is truly honorable, by the former we 
hurry, as it were, before the throne of the Deity, hosts of 
praising and supplicating angels, and thousands of "just 
made perfect." From what we have observed too, in 
relation to the holy Mystery, it will be clear to every 
honest mind, that in consequence of it, Christ is being for 
ever praised and adored. The holy Eucharist is emphati- 
cally the mystery of love, and less love than is exhibited 
by the Catholic, could not be consistently given by the 
believer in the real presence. The very foundations of 
the Reformation have been undermined ; they have been 
removed : shall the building stand ? 



50 



Cjrapler % %$xk 



On the Origin and Authority of the Articles of Religion, 
of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Elizabeth. 



CONTENTS. 

Importance of the examination of the History of the Articles. — Their 
authority in the Anglican Church. — Henry's innovations destructive 
of Episcopal and Clerical authority, generally. — The six Articles, and 
works in connexion with them. — These Articles, &c. forced on the 
people. — The principle involved in the framing of the Articles, destruc- 
tive of Anglicanism. — Fox and others write against the Articles. — The 
Articles and religion of Henry are changed by King Edward. — History 
of the origin, number, nature, and subscription of the Articles of 
Edward VI. — The Articles mainly formed by Cranmer. — His vacillating 
character. — Eeproached for his changes by Gardiner, &c. — Still, always 
dogmatical, imperious, and cruel — Persecution of Mary. — Her firmness. 
— Articles of Elizabeth ; their number and distinctive character. — 
Eeported ignorance of the framers of the Thirty-nine Articles. The 
Articles are enforced and subscribed. — Eeview of the changes in the 
national religion during the reigns of Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth. — 
These Changes wholly dependant on individuals. — Proved from the 
Zurich letters. — The Articles are worthless as an authority. — This 
admitted even by Anglicans. — Observations of Le Maistre on Protes- 
tant Articles. — Difference between the origin of the Articles, and the 
Profession of Faith of Pope Pius. — Justification of the latter. 

In the previous chapter, we have had occasion often to 
allude to, and indeed to cite, the Articles and Homilies of 
the Reformers. It will be our task now to describe the 



The English Reformation. 51 

origin of the various sets of Articles which were rapidly 
drawn up by King Henry and two of his children, Ed- 
ward and Elizabeth, and to see if these Articles have 
either intrinsic or extrinsic evidence in their favour. The 
investigation of this matter is of paramount importance. 
The Articles have been regularly subscribed by the Re- 
formed Clergy of England, and by them, the ministerial 
teachings have been of course directed. They are the 
accredited standard of clerical orthodoxy; the doctrines 
they distinctly affirm, are looked upon as certainly sacred, 
whilst those which are denounced are consequently con- 
sidered to be untenable. Guarded by pains and penalties, 
their orthodoxy was secured, as far as this was attainable 
by human enactments ; and innovation, excepting such as 
emanated either from the head of the state, or from some 
popular outburst of feeling, which the state would be 
found too weak to quell, and to which indeed, for political 
purposes, the actual government would be forced, as at 
the time of the Commonwealth, to yield, was rendered 
impossible. 

Hardly had Henry VIII obtained from the Clergy the 
title o£"Ecclesice et Cleri Anglicani Protector et Supre- 
mum Caput P 1 than the Bishops discovered that they had 
forfeited the power which they had formerly possessed in 
convocation, for the better regulation of the affairs of the 
Church. The Commons wishing that "the convocation 
should be brought down to the same level with the houses 
of Parliament, and that their acts and constitutions should 
not bind their subjects as before, .... until they were 
confirmed and ratified by the regal power," petitioned the 

1 Parker tells us, that Cranmer and Cromwell were the secret advisers 
of this title, see Antiq. Brit. p. 325. 



52 The English Reformation. 

king to this effect. In vain did Gardiner answer this 
remonstrance, — in vain did the remonstrance meet with the 
disapprobation of both houses of convocation ; the petition 
of the Commons was approved of by the Monarch ; and 
the Clergy, who had abandoned their spiritual head, and 
conferred upon Henry the power which the Roman Pon- 
tiffs had formerly possessed, had now to reap the harvest 
of their own sowing. On the 10th of May, 1532, the 
king absolutely required of the clergy, through Fox of 
Hereford, that "no constitution or ordinance should be 
hereafter by the clergy enacted, unless the king's highness 
did approve the same, and his advice and favour be also 
interposed for the execution." 1 Further, it was decreed 
that the sovereign was possessed of absolute power in 
settling questions connected with religion. " In consi- 
deration that your majesty is the only and undoubted 
supreme head, 8fc. to whom by Holy Scriptures all power 
and authority is wholly given, to hear and determine all 
manner of causes ecclesiastical, and to correct vice, &c. 
may it therefore be enacted, &c. ;" 2 and he was likewise 
made the source, the fountain of all kind of jurisdiction, 
as well civil as ecclesiastical. 3 The subservient and cringing 
Parliament, not content with enacting "that no speaking, 
doing, or holding against any laws called spiritual laws, 
made by authority of the See of Rome, by the policy of 
man, which be repugnant to the laws and statutes of the 

i Heylin, § i, p. 7. 2 See Act 37 Henry VIII, 17. 

3 Eex tarn in Episcopos, Clericos, &c., quam in Laicos, plenissimam 
jurisdictionem tarn civilem quam Ecclesiasticam, exercere potest, cum 
omnis jurisdictio et Ecclesiastica et Secularis ab eo, tamquam ex uno et 
eodem fonte derivantur." — See Beform. Leg. Eccles. Tit. de officio et Jurwd. 
omnium Judicum. 



The English Reformation. 53 

realm, or the king's prerogative, shall be deemed to be 
heresy/' — 25 Henry VIII, 14 c, farther declared, " that 
if any spiritual person or persons, shall preach or teach 
contrary to the determinations, which, since 1540, are or 
shall be set forth by his Majesty, as is afore-mentioned, 
that then every such offender, offending the third time, 
contrary to this act, shall be deemed and adjudged a 
heretic, and shall suffer pains of death by burning." 4 The 
Parliament and the king, or rather the king alone through 
the Parliament, became the arbiter of religion. By his 
enactments all were bound ; his decrees were as truthful 
in the eyes of the law, as the acts of councils, or the con- 
sentient testimony of the prelacy of the world. They were 
even more so : for in case the monarch opposed, alone and 
unsupported, a world, his opposition was to be reverenced, 
and his decisions were to be obeyed, under the severest 
penalties. To be sure, a clause was frequently inserted, 
relative to the necessity of the kingly being agreeable to 
the scriptural declaration ; but such a clause was a clause 
of course — a clause, in truth, devoid, under circumstances, 
of meaning. For if the king was supreme judge, and a 
Parliament was sure to approve of his judgment, and even 
boldly assert that he was under the inspiration of heaven 
when he decreed any point, it would never be admitted 
that the royal declaration was irreconcileable with the 
Scriptural statement. The monarch's will was a revela- 
tion; to question that revelation was heresy, and heresy 
was deserving of death. 

Acting, then, on these principles, the king, with the aid 
of his theologians, drew up some Articles of Religion, 5 in 

4 See 34, 35 Henry VIII, 1 c. 

5 Wilkins, Con. iii, 804, 8, 17, 23. These Articles were published in 



54 The English Reformation. 

which the old doctrines were, as a whole, strenuously 
maintained. These were ordered to be read, without note 
or comment, to the people, and against them no one was 
allowed to utter a dissentient opinion. Nor was this all : 
having assumed the character of religious dictator, the 
monarch did not stop here ; he commanded the convoca- 
tion to set forth "a plain and sincere exposition of doc- 
trine;" and this was done to the royal satisfaction in a 
work entitled, " The godly and pious institution of a 
Christian man" which was approved of and subscribed 
by the Archbishops, Bishops, and other distinguished in- 
dividuals, both of the clerical and legal profession, as 
agreeing "in all things with the very true meaning of the 
Scripture" The " Institution" was followed by the " Ne- 
cessary Doctrine and Erudition," which is an amplification 
of the former work, and was intended, as we are told at 
the very commencement of the book, " for the institution 
and erudition of the common people." This work was to 
supersede the use of the Bible, which the monarch, in the 
plenitude of his power, had withdrawn from that general 
circulation which originally he had furthered; and from 
it, the people were to learn cc what to believe in point of 
doctrine, and how to carry themselves in points of prac- 
tice." 1 That it might appear with the highest sanction, the 
king caused an act to be passed in Parliament, u for the 
abohshing of all books and writings comprising any matter 

1536, with the following title : " Articles devised by the king's highness 
majesty, to establish Christian quietness and unity among us." They 
approve of the three creeds, and advocate the lawfulness of the invocation 
of saints, and prayers for the dead, and use of images. Purgatory, the 
real presence, auricular confession, too, are maintained as formerly. — See 
Fuller's Church History, 1. v, p. 216. 

i Wilkins, 1. c. p. 830. 



The English Reformation. 55 

of Christian religion, contrary to that doctrine, which, 
since the year 1540 is, or any time during the king's life 
shall be, set forth by his highness." 2 These decrees, thus 
set forth by royal authority, all Englishmen " were fully 
to believe, obey, and observe"; and, "if any spiritual 
person should preach or teach contrary to those deter- 
minations, or any other that should be so set forth by his 
majesty, such person offending the third time, contrary to 
that act of Parliament, was to be deemed and adjudged a 
heretic, and suffer pains of death by burning." 

The royal writings and ordinances, did not, however, 
prove as satisfactory to the people or to the Bishops, 
as to the monarch. He had flattered himself into the 
belief, that uniformity of truth would result from the 
publications already named ; but in this he was doomed 
to disappointment. It was thought strange that the prince 
of Reformers in England should limit the spread of Re- 
form : that he, who had, in opposition to a world, set up 
himself as supreme head of the Church of England, should 
refuse to others the right of judging for themselves, and of 
advocating those principles and practices, which to them 
might appear most consonant to reason or revelation. And 
hence it happened, that diversity of opinion was soon seen 
to spread in many directions, and instead of the one faith 
formerly professed, England was deluged by a torrent 
of tempestuous creeds. To obviate the results of unre- 
strained private opinion, — to stop, in fact, the spread of 
that very principle which was made the basis of Protestan- 
tism — the king commanded a committee to be chosen, on 
the re-opening of Parliament in May, 1539, to consider 
what were the differences of opinion which were publicly 
2 Heylin, Hist. Church of England, § iv, p. 23. 



56 The English Reformation. 

advocated, and which were to be rejected, and which held 
as divine truths. The committee, however, was far from 
being of one mind. The followers of the new creed of 
Germany, Cromwell, Cranmer, and the Bishops of Salis- 
bury and Ely, were vigorously opposed by the Archbishop 
of York and the Bishops of Durham, Carlisle, Bath, and 
Bangor. It was soon seen that agreement was impossible 
in the committee. To the consideration of the House, 
six questions were then submitted, relative to the Eu- 
charist, communion under one kind, private masses, auri- 
cular confession, the celibacy of the clergy, and vows of 
chastity; and to hasten the deliberations of the committee, 
Henry himself descended into the arena of controversy. 
Prior to the royal visit, Cranmer had vigorously opposed 
the ancient faith; with that visit his eloquence ceased. 
Eirm against the decisions of his episcopal opponents, he 
yielded to the arguments or authority of his king; and 
all, save Salisbury, who earned, in the language of the 
times, the character of (C a lewd fool," l yielded assent to 
the following propositions, which form the first creed of 
Protestantism, commonly called, " The Six Articles," or 
"The Bloody Statute." 2 1° In the Sacrament of the 
Altar, after the consecration, there remains no substance 
of bread and wine, but under those forms, the natural 
body and blood of Christ are present. 9/ Communion 
under both kinds, is not necessary to salvation to all per- 
sons, by the law of God. 3 C Priests may not marry, by 
the law of God. 4° Yows of chastity ought to be observed, 
by the law of God. 5° The use of private masses ought 
to be continued. 6° Auricular confession is expedient 
and necessary. The title of the bill containing these arti- 
1 Cleop. E. 5, p. 128. 2 31st Henry VIII, c. xiv, anno 1539. 



The English Reformation. 57 

dies was, " An act for abolishing diversity of opinions in 
certain articles concerning Christian religion." It was 
further stated, that the Articles had been agreed upon by 
the king, and had obtained the assent of both houses of 
Parliament ; and it was enacted, that " if any, after the 
12th of July, did speak, preach, or write, against the first 
Article, they were to be judged heretics, and to be burnt 
without any abjuration, and to forfeit their real and per- 
sonal estates to the king. And those who preached, or 
obstinately disputed against the other Articles, were to be 
judged felons, and to suffer death as felons without benefit 
of clergy ; and those who either in word or writing op- 
posed them, were to be prisoners during the king's plea- 
sure, and forfeit their goods and chatties to the king for 
the first offence, and if they offended a second time, they 
were to suffer as felons." All the marriages of priests were 
declared void, and " if any priest did still keep any such 
woman, whom he had so married and lived familiarly with 
as with his wife, he was to be judged a felon; and if a 
priest lived carnally with any other woman, he was, upon 
the first conviction, to forfeit his benefices, goods and 
chattels, and to be imprisoned during the king's pleasure ; 
and upon the second conviction, was to suffer as a felon. 
Those who contemned or abstained from confession or 
the sacrament at the accustomed times, for the first offence 
were to forfeit their goods and chatties, and to be impri- 
soned; and for the second were to be adjudged of felony." 3 
Such were the Articles, and such the first code of belief, 
emanating from a temporal sovereign and a mixed parlia- 
ment. Henry and his followers did not profess either to 

3 Burnet, Hist, of Reform, vol. i, p. 400-1 ; and Herberts Henry VIII, 
p. 510-1. 

V2 



58 The English Reformation. 

believe or to enforce the Articles, because they contained 
an expression of the belief of former times, or because they 
were evidenced by the testification of nearly the whole of 
Christendom at that very moment ; but they received them 
and enjoined obedience to what had been ordained, because 
they could prove such doctrines to be really divine. The 
principle of decision was new, though the articles of faith 
were old. Their antiquity, indeed, would hardly be a re- 
commendation to one like Henry, who had begun a new 
religion, of which he himself was the head, and who had 
formally rejected the dogma of Pontifical Supremacy, 
which he had lately shown to be "so ancient, that its 
origin was quite forgotten ; and so uniformly admitted, 
that since the conversion of the world all Churches in the 
Christian world had been obedient to the See of Rome." 1 
The decision was the expression of the royal will, and the 
result of an authority which was practically supreme. This 
authority was submitted to by a parliament, which had all 
along been the Sovereign's tool ; and though for awhile a 
few of the bishops, including Cranmer, opposed the pass- 
ing of the Articles — the Archbishop had no little interest 
in doing so, for he himself was married — they at length 
yielded ; sanctioned the act ; passed the code of penalties ; 
and eventually inflicted the sentence of death on all who 
dared to violate the injunctions of the Statutes. Heresy 
was made dependant on the royal denunciation, as also on 
the co-legislative parliamentary power. This again was a 
new power. It was a thing wholly unheard of in the 
annals of the Church, that an English parliament had 
authority to decide on matters of faith. As Heylin well 
observes : li As long as the clergy were in power, and had 
1 Assertio Septein. Sac. c. ii, Eng, Ed. p. 242. 



The English Reformation. 59 

authority in convocation to do what they would in matters 
which concerned religion, those of the parliament con- 
ceived it neither safe nor fitting, to intermeddle in such 
business as concerned the clergy, for fear of being ques- 
tioned for it at the Church's bar ; but when that power 
was lessened, though it were not lost, by the submission 
of the clergy to King Henry VIII, and by the Act of 
Supremacy which ensued upon it, then did the parliament 
begin to entrench upon the Church's rights, to offer at, and 
entertain such businesses, as formerly were held peculiar 
to the clergy only." 1 We shall soon have occasion to see, 
how the acts of Henry were despised by his son Edward, 
and his daughters Mary and Elizabeth ; and further, how 
Cranmer and the parliament repealed the Articles of belief 
which they had previously ratified, and framed others 
directly and absolutely negativing those of 1539. Our 
Sovereigns did not deem it criminal to undo what Henry 
and his had done; and if prelates gave their assent to 
the Forty-two Articles of Edward, and the Thirty-nine of 
Elizabeth, they claimed a right to do so, on the same prin- 
ciples which their forefathers had advocated, when they 
rejected the Papal Supremacy, and substituted the King 
for the Pope, and the Six Articles for the ancient Creed of 
Catholicity. 

Fox, the notorious martyrologist, condemns the Articles. 
" Although," he says, " they contained manifest errors, 
heresies, and absurdities against all scripture and learning, 
yet such was the miserable adversity of that time and of 
the power of darkness, that the simple cause of truth was 
utterly forsaken of all friends. For every man seeing the 
King's mind " (the reader will remember that the King 
2 Eng. Eeform. justif. p. 41, by Heylin. 



60 The English Reformation. 

had been made the judge of truth) "so fully addicted, 
upon politic respects to have these Articles, to pass for- 
ward ; few or none in that parliament would appear, who 
either could perceive that which was to be defended, or 
durst defend that they understood to be true." " To 
many who be yet alive, and can testify these things, it is 
not unknown, how variable the state of religion stood in 
these days ; how hardly and with what difficulty it came 
forth ; what chances and changes it suffered ; even as the 
king was ruled and gave ear, sometimes to one and some- 
times to another ; so, one while it went forward, at another 
season as much backward again ; and sometimes clean 
altered and changed for a season, according as they could 
prevail who were about the king. So long as Queen Anne 
lived, the Gospel had indifferent success. After that she, 
by sinister instigation of some about the king, was made 
away, the course of the Gospel began again to decline, but 
that the Lord stirred up the Lord Cromwell (!) opportunely 
to help in that behalf, who did much avail for the increase 
of God's true religion. . . .After the taking away of which 
Cromwell, the state of religion more and more decayed, 
during all the residue of the reign of King Henry. And 
amongst these adversaries was Stephen Gardiner, who 
brought the king at length clean out of credit with the 
reformed religion." 3 Similar is the statement of Latimer, 
with regard to the fluctuation and uncertainty of religion, 
after the establishment of the Royal Supremacy and the 
independent Church of England. " I refer you," says 
Latimer, " to your own experience, to think of our country 
parliaments and convocations, how and what ye have there 
seen and heard. The more part in my time did bring forth 
i Fox, 1036-7. 



The English Reformation. 61 

the Six Articles, for then the king would so have it, being 
seduced of certain. Afterwards the more part did repeal 
the same, our good Josiah (Edward) willing to have it so. 
The same Articles now again, alas ! another greater, but 
worse part hath restored. O what an uncertainty is this. 
But after this sort most commonly are man's proceedings. 
God be merciful unto us ! " 3 

Hardly was Henry dead, when the fabric which he 
had erected with so much pains, was nearly levelled to 
the ground. The pillar and foundation stone of Angli- 
canism removed, the building fell; and those who had 
once helped the sovereign in his arduous task of reforma- 
tion, were the foremost in pulling to pieces what they 
had been instrumental in erecting. Henry only aban- 
doned the Church, as his whole history proves, because 
the Church was the obstacle to the gratification of his 
illicit amour with Anne Boleyn. He separated from the 
Pontiff to be united to Anne, and that union effected, 
he thought little of reform. Indeed, his pride of intellect 
induced him to oppose that reformation, which Cranmer 
and others well affected to the German reformers, would 
have introduced. Henry was an author as well as a king. 
He had written a work against the head of the foreign 
separatists, in vindication of the doctrines and practices 
of the Church of Rome ; and for this work he had obtained 
.the praise of the Pontiff, the distinguished title of " de- 
fender of the faith," and the approbation of the sovereigns 
and illustrious scholars of Europe. His book was nearly 
as dear to him as his crown ; and the new title which he 
had earned he was as anxious to retain, as the title of sove- 
reign of the realm. To oppose the olden faith, where his 
2 See Kidley's Works, p. 130-1. Parker, Soc. Ed. 1841. 



62 The English Reformation. 

private interests were not at stake, or to deny what he 
had formerly so eloquently and logically demonstrated, 
would have been considered by Henry, as nothing less 
than self-condemnation. Further, Luther, and Luther's 
partizans, had not simply written against him ; they had 
used term after term of contempt and obloquy; had 
addressed the sovereign of England in language unfit for 
the ears of any street wrangler, so low, so criminatory, so 
ungentlemanly was it. This the king could not forget; 
hence his opposition to those distinctive tenets which 
characterized the German and Helvetic Churches. As 
has been well observed, " the English Keformation, upon 
whatever theological grounds it may eventually have been 
based, was, undoubtedly, in the first instance, a mere 
political movement." x It was not the result of a system, 
but of circumstances. With changed circumstances, it 
altered ; and as the followers of Luther and Calvin gained 
or lost influence in this country, so did the popular creed 
exhibit more or fewer evidences of the effects of the 
foreign teachings. 2 

Cranmer and Somerset were now at the head of affairs. 
They, in fact, governed both Church and State ; for what 
could a boy king, only 10 years of age be, but a puppet 
in the hands of wily and cunning men like the two indi- 
viduals just named. Whilst the former was well known 
to be hostile to the six articles, for reasons already men- 
tioned, the latter was devotedly attached to the principles 
of the foreign reformers. The consequences of the spiri- 
tual ascendency of such men, may readily be anticipated. 

1 The subject of Tract XC Examined, p. 15. 

2 See on this point, Cardwell's Preface to the two Prayer-books of 
Edward VI, p. 9. 



The English Reformation. 63 

Cranmer availing himself of his favourable position, drew 
up, with the assistance of Becon — one of the most violent, 
and assuredly the most scurrilous writer, of the reformers 
— the book of Homilies, in which he developed those 
doctrines most congenial to his own feelings and convic- 
tions, or the feelings and convictions of the foreigners 
whose approbation he was anxious to ensure. To have 
done only this would not have sufficed. He would make 
the Homilies the standard of orthodoxy ; and for this end, 
they were ordered to be read in every Church on all 
Sundays and Holidays. Furthermore, to ensure this one 
form of teaching, no one, not even a bishop, was allowed 
to preach without previously obtaining either from Somer- 
set or Cranmer, permission to do so. In vain did Gar- 
diner challenge Cranmer to prove the new doctrines 
advocated in the Homilies, and accuse him of duplicity 
and tergiversation : he was speedily sent to prison, there 
to ponder on the effects of resisting the dogmatism of the 
fickle metropolitan. 

But the publication of the Homilies, was only a step in 
the course of reform planned by Cranmer. The six 
articles were soon repealed ; and the Archbishop looked 
forward with pleasure to the moment when he might, 
without let or hindrance, enjoy the society of the woman 
whom he had forced from his palace, in order to evade 
the displeasure of Henry, if not to testify his hearty 
assent to the articles, to which he had outwardly at least 
given his approval. Priests were allowed to marry; 3 com- 
munion was commonly hereafter to be received under both 
kinds: images were ordered to be removed; and the 
observances of Candlemas- day, Ash-wednesday, and Palm 

3 Wilkins, iv, 22. 



64 The English Reformation. 

Sunday, were utterly abolished. Still, as formerly, the 
mass was offered up, and the ancient creed was nearly 
universally professed. This creed was now to be altered ; 
but gradually. To pave the way, and prepare the public 
mind for greater alterations, a catechism was u set forth " 
by Cranmer in 1548, "for the singular profit and instruc- 
tion of children and young people." Notwithstanding 
many changes, much remained in accordance with the 
olden faith. The people were still told to believe that 
"in the communion, the body and blood of Christ were 
received with the bodily mouth;" and the advantages 
of confession and sacramental absolution were strongly 
inculcated. 1 It is not generally believed, that Cranmer 
himself composed this catechism. It seems to have been 
originally written in German, and was in all probability 
one of the many catechisms to which Luther's gave rise, 
and by which the German reformation was forwarded. 
Likely enough, the elder Justus Jonas composed it, and 
it is more than probable that to Cranmer's chaplain, 
Rowland Taylor, the public were indebted for the English 
translation. 2 Since, however, Cranmer sanctioned the 
work by his own name, it must be considered as an ex- 
pression of another phase of this reformer's varying 
notions of religion — as " another proof of the slow and 
painful process through which he arrived at what he 
conceived to be the truth." 3 At this period, Cranmer 
was engaged on a more important and more arduous un- 
dertaking; an undertaking which was followed by a 
moral earthquake, which nearly threw down the new 

1 Burnet, ii, 71. 

2 See Brunt's Sketch of the Reformation in England, p. 209. 
s Blunt, 1. c. 



The English Reformation. 65 

fabric of religion, whilst it frightfully convulsed the whole 
of this and the sister kingdom, as we shall have occasion 
to show at a future period of this history. The work to 
which we refer, was no other than the substitution of an 
English and reformed, for the ancient and venerable 
liturgy of Rome. It was completed in 1548, and in 1549 
was published by authority, and appointed to supersede 
every other form of divine worship. To Edward the 
new prayer-book afforded "great comfort and quietness 
of mind ; " and the Parliament, by declaring that the 
prelates and learned men engaged on the task, had accom- 
plished it BY THE AID OF THE HOLY GHOST, 4 With Ofie 

common agreement, must have felt no ordinary satisfaction 
at the termination of the labours of the prelates and their 
coadjutors. But time soon proved either the falseness of 
the statement relative to the aid of the Holy Spirit, or the 
wickedness of the reformed Parliament of 1552; for the 
ritual which had been drawn up " by the aid of the Holy 
Ghost " was again subjected to alterations; the unctions in 
baptism and confirmation, the sign of the cross in matri- 
mony, the anointing of the sick, and prayers for the dead, 
though sanctioned by the first ritual of Edward, were 
omitted in the second, Martyr and Bucer being on this 
occasion the inspiring divinities. 5 

The catechism and liturgy being completed, and forced 
upon the nation, it was time — so Cranmer at least thought, 
and his foreign advisers, Bucer, Martyr, Melancthon, 
and Calvin — the combination must strike the reader who 

4 See the preamble to the Act, 1549. 

5 Compare the rituals as published by the Parker Society ; or see 
Cardwell's comparison of the two, Cranmer, Ridley, and Goodrich of 
Ely, were the chief compilers of the first ritual. 



66 The English Reformation. 

is looking for unity of principle in the English autocrat, — 
to frame a code of articles. To this, the archbishop then 
directed his attention, and before the end of 1551 the 
work was prepared. It was at once placed in the hands 
of several prelates, in whose possession it remained until 
the beginning of 1552 ; and in the following May, the 
council addressed a letter to the archbishop, directing him 
to " send the articles that were last year delivered to the 
bishops, and to signify whether the same were set forth 
by any public authority." The articles were accordingly 
forwarded as directed; but we find them four months 
afterwards again in the hands of the archbishop, by whom 
they were revised, according, in all probability, to some 
suggestions he had received from those in power ; and 
eventually they were forwarded to Edward for the royal 
approval. But other changes and alterations in the 
original draft of Cranmer had still to be made. The 
document was next submitted to the examination of some 
divines attached to the king's household ; then it was 
revised by the primate, and eventually forwarded to the 
council, with a request that measures might be imme- 
diately taken, to authorize the Bishops to compel their 
clergy to subscribe the important instrument. It was at 
length published in 1552 1 in forty-two Articles, and before 
Edward's death every member of the Universities prior 
to his admission to any degree was obliged to swear to 
the truth of the new creed, and to promise to defend it 

1 In the Title prefixed to the Articles, they are said to hare been 
agreed upon in the Synod of 1552 ; whereas the royal letter makes use of 
these words — " in Synodo Londiniensi Anno Domini, 1553." The differ- 
ence arises from the different mode of computing the ecclesiastical and 
civil year. 



The English Reformation. 67 

in all places as agreeable to the word of God ; 2 and every 
clergyman, schoolmaster and churchwarden too, was 
under the necessity of subscribing it. Of what authority 
these articles were, it is 1 impossible, from want of docu- 
mentary evidence, to determine ; it would seem, however, 
that they never received the sanction of convocation. 3 

The chief points of difference between these articles 
and those of Elizabeth, to which we shall soon direct the 
reader's attention, may be reduced to two : first, discrepan- 
cies regarding doctrines; and secondly, occasional omis- 
sions or additions. With regard to the first : in the articles 
of Edward, the Eternal generation and consubstantiality of 
the Son, are only at the most implied ; whereas, in the 
code of Elizabeth, both these important truths are dis- 
tinctly maintained. Further, the real presence is very 
crudely denied in the articles of Edward, — notwithstand- 
ing the Bishop's catechism, in which the real presence was 
clearly advocated : it is denied on the ground that the 
same body cannot absolutely be in more than one place 
at the same time. In Elizabeth's reign, this reason is 
carefully omitted, and in its stead is substituted the decla- 
ration that " the body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten 
in the supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual man- 
ner." If Burnet's authority can be relied on, this change 

2 Burnet, ii, 166 ; Wilkins' Councils, iv, 79. 

3 On this fact, great stress was laid, whilst the agitation caused by 
Tract XC lasted. Dr. Lamb, in his historical account of the thirty-nine 
Articles, is decidedly of opinion that "they were drawn up by individuals 
appointed by the king, totally independent of convocation ; " and such is 
the general belief, I think, of all those who have really entered fully and 
impartially into the historical question. See the above named able work 
of the Master of C. C. College, for a full and impartial examination of this 
subject. 



68 The English Reformation. 

was made, in order to conciliate the Germans, who pro- 
fessed Lutheranism; but others will have it, that the 
reformers had a still more domestic object in view, to 
conciliate the Catholics who still formed the bulk of the 
nation, and to render as indefinite as possible the belief 
of Anglicanism on this vital article of religion. The ob- 
scurity of the meaning of the article has caused much 
controversy during the last two hundred and more years : 
its meaning has even yet to be discovered. 

The forty- two articles, point out the nature of grace and 
free will; define what is the sin against the Holy Spirit 
of which the scriptures speak; declare that the resurrec- 
tion of the dead is not passed already; that the soul 
neither entirely perishes nor sleeps after death; that 
Millenarianism is a fable; and lastly they condemn the 
declaration of the Origenists, that all men are at last to be 
saved. 1 The articles containing these doctrines are all 
omitted in the thirty-nine Articles of Elizabeth. What 
those articles are, and what additions are there made to 
the second code, or second symbol of Protestantism pub- 
lished in 1552, we shall have occasion to explain a little 
later. 2 

A second Reformation was thus effected, differing widely 
from the first. Cranmer had altered nearly all his prin- 
ciples, not only such as he had avowed in the reign of the 
despotic father of Edward, but also such as he had openly 
professed in his Catechism and public ministrations. Justi- 
fication by faith only 3 was now defended ; indirectly the 

1 See Articles x, xvi, xxxix, xl, xli, and xlii. 

3 The reader will find in note A at the end of this work, the Articles of 
Henry, Edward, and Elizaheth. 

Burnet was so ashamed of this word only, that he preferred rather to 
falsify the Articles than insert it. See his Articles in 1. 



The English Reformation. 69 

doctrine of the Catholic Church regarding purgatory, par- 
dons, invocation of Saints, and the honor given to the relics 
of Saints and to their memorials, was attacked and pro- 
nounced to be " a fond thing vainly invented, grounded 
upon no warrant of Scripture, but rather perniciously 
repugnant to the word of God ; " the use of the Latin 
tongue was condemned during the public service, unless 
some were present to interpret ; no Sacraments were ad- 
mitted as such, except Baptism and the Supper of the 
Lord; not only was Trans ubstantiation rejected, but also 
the real or corporeal presence of the body and blood of 
Christ in the holy Eucharist ; the Mass was pronounced to 
be a fable and a dangerous deceit ; the new Prayer-book 
was approved of as very pious, and " in nothing contrary 
but agreeable to the wholesome doctrine of the Gospel ; " 
Edward was called the supreme head on earth of the 
Church of England and Ireland ; 4 and in fine it was stated, 
though it may require no little ingenuity to- conciliate this 
declaration with that of a previous assertion, — that at the 
resurrection which is not already passed, men will receive 
rewards or punishments according to their works. 

The reader need not be told in how many ways these 
Articles differ from those which Cranmer originally, and 
till recently, had approved of. His was an incessantly 
dissolving view of religion. His religion changed and 
changed again, till it became difficult, if not impossible, to 
say what were his actual religious opinions. Assuredly, in 
the faith of yesterday there was no evidence of his faith of 
to-day : with yesterday, yesterday's faith ceased ; and the 
newly adopted creed was as of uncertain duration as any 
previous one. During Edward's reign, Cranmer had 

4 See Articles xi, xxiii, xxv, xxviii, xxxi, xxxv, xxxvi, xxxix. 



70 The E?iglish Reformation. 

solemnly offered up the Mass/ and during that same reign 
he had condemned that Mass, with all that rendered it so 
sacred, namely, the presence of Christ, and its efficacy for 
the living and the dead. He had offered up the Mass in 
the language of ancient Rome, and during it he had shown 
his respect for the Crucifix, and had invoked the Saints of 
God, and prayed for the repose of departed spirits ; and 
within a few years, as we have just seen, he was found 
condemning the ancient service, with the veneration of 
images, the invocation of Saints, and prayers for the dead, 
which were all involved in that service. 2 If such a vaccila- 
ting character was bitterly reproached by others for his 
duplicity and changeableness, who will feel surprise ? 
Gardiner, whose practices and belief the Archbishop sought 
to control, scornfully alluded to the temporizing conduct of 
the prelate, 3 whom he challenged to the proof of certain 
doctrines which had been recently imposed on the nation. 
Bonner called him to his face a notorious heretic, and re- 
proached him bitterly for his subserviency and inconstancy 
in matters of religion. Even weak women dared to taunt 
him for his unflxedness of belief: " It is a goodly matter," 
exclaimed Joan Bocker, whom the Archbishop had con- 
demned as a heretic and delivered over to the secular 
power for execution, " it is a goodly matter, to consider 
your ignorance. It was not long ago that you burned 
Anne Askew for a piece of bread, and yet came yourself 
soon after to believe and profess the same doctrine for 
which you burned her : and, now, forsooth, you will needs 
burn me for a piece of flesh, and in the end will come to 

1 Strype's Cranmer, 144. 

2 See the Ancient Liturgies, as published by the Rev. W. Maskell. 

3 Strype's Cranmer, App. p. 74. 



The English 'Reformation. 71 

believe this also, when you have read the Scriptures and 
understand them." Her words were indeed singularly 
prophetic. Even the Prayer-book of his own approval, 
the book which was drawn up to supplant the old ritual, 
and which was forced upon a reluctant nation, even this 
book, though it was said to have been composed by " the 
aid of the Holy Ghost," was altered and changed, as we 
have already stated, to please the prejudices or the ortho- 
doxy of the reformers, Martyr and Bucer. 

And yet, notwithstanding this uncertainty of creed, of 
which the Archbishop offered greater and more striking 
evidences year after year, the most violent and unwarrant- 
able means were resorted to, to compel both prelates and 
people to acquiesce in each new form of faith as it first 
appeared. The Archbishop and the Court, in the very 
hour of their change, practically claimed to be looked upon 
as infallible ; and punished with incarceration and pe- 
nalties, and sometimes death, those who ventured on that 
course of alteration which they themselves were constantly 
pursuing. It was zeal and religion in Cranmer, and his, 
to alter ; in others it was disrespect and irreligion either 
to change, or to remain strenuous advocates of, the olden 
creed. Gardiner was sent to the Fleet, and afterwards to the 
Tower ; Bonner was confined for years in the Marshalsea ; 
and Heath of Worcester, and Day of Chichester, were 
likewise made prisoners, for not believing in the orthodoxy 
of Cranmer, and assenting to that form of faith and liturgy 
which the Archbishop had foisted on the nation. Nay, 
more, though the nation as a body — for eleven-twelfths of 
it still remained Catholic 4 and devoted to the old liturgy, 

4 " The use of the old religion is forbidden by a law : and the use of the 
new is not yet printed in the stomachs of eleven of twelve parts of the 



72 The English Reformation. 

— rejected with indignation the new service, which they 
called a " mere Christmas play/ 5 1 and rose up in arms 
simultaneously in fifteen counties, 2 and eventually in 
a more threatening manner in the counties of Norfolk, 
Cornwall, Devonshire and Oxfordshire, in defence of their 
belief and of their altars, which the reformers would upset, 
their convictions were not respected. The forty-two 
Articles of the new ritual were maintained ; and it was 
forbidden not only to keep a copy of any record of the 
former faith, under the penalty of a fine for the two first 
offences, and of imprisonment during the royal pleasure 
for the third transgression, 3 but also to offer up or assist at 
the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, either in public or in 
private. 

Even the daughter of Henry, and the sister of Edward, 
was prohibited from worshipping God in accordance with 
her convictions, and in the manner in which she and all 
the sovereigns and princes of England had worshipped, for 
nearly a thousand years. Her head chaplain was tossed 
into prison, 4 and some others of her household were treated 
with equal or greater severity. Nor was this all. The 
princess herself was ordered, as she valued the royal favor, 
to assist at the service of the new ritual. 

realm ; what countenance soever men make outwardly to please them, in 
whom the}' see the power resteth." Apud Strype, ii, Rec. 110. This letter 
was written hy Paget to the Protector, on July 7th, 1549. 

1 Fox, ii, 15. 

2 These counties were Worcester, Warwick, Leicester, Rutland, Glou- 
cester, Wilts, Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Berks, Hampshire, Essex, Suffolk, 
Somerset and Leicester. 

3 Stat. 3, Edw. VI, 10. For the names of those who voted against this 
unjust and tyrannical measure, see Journals, 384. 

4 Strype, ii, 252, 256. 



The English Reformation. 73 

But Mary was possessed of an amount of courage and 
resolution which nothing could daunt, and of a faith which 
she was determined never to abandon. She declared that 
she would not obey the royal order, and that rather than 
use any other service than was followed during her father's 
life-time, she would willingly lay down her life on the 
scaffold. Should they endeavour to force the new service 
on her, she would quit, she said, her home at once and for 
ever. 5 

But was Cranmer even now settled in his new creed ; 
that creed which he had endeavoured to fasten on the 
people, and in the carrying out of which design he had 
had recourse to such inconsistent, cruel, and barbarous 

5 See Archgeologia, xviii, 154, 166. Mary's firmness and steadiness in 
her peculiar circumstances, must strike the thoughtful reader. Nor will 
he fail to dwell in mind on the effrontery of Edward's Councillors, who 
dared thus to insult the religion and dearest feelings of the highest subject 
of the land. What recommendation did the lives and conduct of the 
changelings of those days carry with them to convince the princess of the 
orthodoxy of the new creed ; or what right had these to force their new 
religion on the conscience of any one ? Apostates from the creed of 
Christendom, surely they might have allowed to others that liberty of 
conscience which they had but just claimed for themselves. On the 
whole, the firmness of Gardiner, who said : " Obedire oportet Deo magis 
quam hominibus," (Strype's Cranmer, App. 74,) and of Bonner, who told 
his judges with a firm voice and a nobleness of mien, which proved the 
honesty of his words, that he had " three things, a few goods, a poor 
carcass, and a soul ; of which the two first were at their disposal, whilst 
the last was at his own ; " and of Day, who refused to remove the altars 
in his diocese, on the ground that "his conscience would not permit him," 
and who further met his threateners by saying that he thought it a less 
evil to suffer the body to perish, than to corrupt his soul ; and of Heath, 
who declared that he would rather endure deprivation or any other 
punishment than oppose his conscience by obeying the reformers, is pecu- 
liarly gratifying, and bears ample evidence of their sincerity. See Council 
book, f. 200. 

E 



74 The English Reformation. 

conduct ? No. After persecuting others, and throwing 
the whole nation into confusion, and burthening it with an 
unprecedented weight of debt, in consequence of the ne- 
cessity of supporting a large army to quell that spirit of 
rebellion which the demons of reform had evoked, and 
adding treason to religious innovation — he had the weak- 
ness and wickedness to sign an instrument for depriving 
Mary of the throne of England — he lived, to prove still 
further to the world his treachery and dishonesty in matters 
connected with his sovereign and his God, and to see the 
fabric which he had raised levelled to the ground; the 
liturgy over which he had toiled condemned by the par- 
liament, on which he had so confidently relied, as "a new 
thing imagined and devised by a few of singular opinions /" 
the forty-two Articles of religion entirely repealed ; the na- 
tion solemnly reunited to the Pontiff of Koine, whom, not- 
withstanding his oath, he had vigorously opposed for twenty 
long years and more ; and the laws which he himself had 
framed with so much care, and by virtue of which heresy 
was made a crime which the State was to punish in some 
instances even with the severest penalty, the penalty of 
death, turned against their franier. 

Seven times during the reign of Mary, did Cranmer 
recant and retract his former errors. Suspecting the sin- 
cerity of the fallen Archbishop, the examiners condemned 
the four first retractions, because to them they appeared 
somewhat evasive ; but the fifth was so explicit that it was 
joyfully received. In the sixth, in which he condemned 
his previous conduct, acknowledged that he had been a 
greater persecutor than St. Paul, that he deserved not only 
temporal, but everlasting punishment, and that he was 
undeserving of favour, he evinced either a consciousness 



The English Reformation. 75 

of tlie criminality of his former course of vacillation, or an 
extent of duplicity lengthened out to the last days of life, 
unparalleled in the annals of ecclesiastical malversation. 
He was, he said, " the cause and author of the divorce ; he 
had blasphemed against the sacrament, and had sinned 
against heaven. He conjured the Pope, the king, and the 
queen to pardon his offences against them ; the whole 
realm and the universal Church to have pity on his 
wretched soul ; and God to look down with mercy on him 
at the hour of his death." 1 

Such a man was calculated to disgrace and cast contempt 
on any cause. But when we remember that Cranmer was 
the author of the faith of Protestantism, the individual 
specially selected to frame the laws, the Articles, the Cate- 
chism, the boohs out of which the people ivere to be in- 
structed, and the tohole Church of England and Ireland 
was to pray, we shrink with horror from the sight of such 
a man, and pity indeed the abettors and panegyrists of 
such a character. Even on the brink of the grave Cranmer 
was not sincere. The recantation which he had promised 
to read prior to his execution, which he himself had tran- 
scribed and presented in his own hand writing to a Spanish 
friar, by whom he was constantly attended at the close of 
his life, was revoked in his last speech. 2 Then he attributed 
the past retraction to a hope fondly cherished, that by thus 
acting, he should obtain mercy from his sovereign. (i I 
renounce and refuse them," he said, " as things written 
with my hand, contrary to the truth which I thought in 
my heart ; and written for fear of death, and to save my 
life, if it might be." 3 Obviously Cranmer was unwilling 

1 See Dr. Lingard's Vindication against Todd, pp. 95-6-7. 
3 Fox, Acts, &c, 559. 3 Strype, iii, 237. 



76 The English Reformation. 

to receive the martyr's crown. He preferred life, at any 
rate, to death. He was willing to stultify the doings of a 
life ; to disgrace the party with which he had been formerly 
connected and which had relied so implicitly on his power, 
or honesty, or ability ; to lie in matters of religion ; to pen 
what his heart abhorred, in order to obtain a commutation 
of the sentence of death which had been passed on him, 
and to escape the punishment which he had so ruthlessly 
and unpityingly inflicted on others. Is such a man to be 
looked upon as a God to Pharaoh, and is his word deser- 
ving of the slightest credit ? His end showed clearly that 
what " he had written with his hand" in the days of his 
prosperity and absolutism, might well be suspected to have 
been "contrary to the truth which he thought in his heart." 
The desire of pleasing Henry in the first instance, and his 
anxiety to gratify the German reformers and the Court 
parasites, whose thirst for the wealth of the Church was 
insatiable, at an after period, not to speak of personal mo- 
tives of a still more degrading character, enable us easily 
to explain the course of conduct pursued by this unfortu- 
nate man, and to account for all the changes which marked 
the entire period of his life whilst Archbishop of Canterbury. 
It is now time to say something relative to the present 
Articles of the Anglican Church, which were published 
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1562. 
As the reader has already been told, these articles are 
thirty -nine in number ; and though they differ from those of 
Edward in several respects, they are however in general 
identical with those of 1552. Which articles were omitted 
in the Elizabethan code, I have already stated. It re- 
mains for me to describe the origin of the Elizabethan 
Articles, and to refer to the ratification which they 



The English Reformation. 77 

received, and the authority in which they are held by the 
clergy and laity of the Establishment. 

In the beginning of her reign, Elizabeth gave her 
assent to " thirty -nine Articles, agreed upon by the 
archbishops and bishops of both provinces, and the whole 
clergy, in the convocation holden at London in the year 
1562, for avoiding diversities of opinion, and for the 
establishing of consent, touching true religion." The 
code of Edward had been repealed by Mary ; and now 
the religion of Mary was again banished the land by the 
laws and articles of Elizabeth. Like all other human 
things, the articles did not arrive at immediate perfection, 
even according to the declaration of the English reformers. 
They were retouched in 1571, and since that period have 
been made the test of clerical orthodoxy. The articles 
of 1562 were drawn up in Latin; but in 1571, they were 
published in English as well as in Latin, and both copies 
were subscribed by the members of the houses of convoca- 
tion. 1 The following is a general division of the articles. 
The five first regard the Blessed Trinity; the three 
next refer to the authority and number of the sacred 
books, and the creeds which are to be received and be- 
lieved ; the ninth treats of original sin, whilst in the five 
following, the important questions of free-will, justifica- 
tion, good works, works before justification, and works of 
supererogation are agitated. The fifteenth regards Christ's 
immunity from sin, and man's sinfulness. In the three 
next articles, the nature of post-baptismal sin is declared, 

1 See Burnet's Articles, in 1, and Prettyman's Elements, vol. ii, p. 34-5, 
as also Bennet's Essay on the Thirty-nine Articles ; in which not only 
the history of the articles is given, but also a critical account of the 
minutest discrepancies which occur in various copies of the articles. 



78 The English Reformation. 

and the doctrines of predestination, election, and salvation 
through Christ only, are developed at considerable length. 
The characteristics of the Church, its authority and the 
authority of general councils, are treated of in three other 
articles. The twenty-second is indeed a sweeping article. 
In it, purgatory, indulgences, invocation of saints, and the 
veneration of relics and images, are unequivocally con- 
demned as futile and contradictory of the word of God. 
The twenty-third tells us who are true ministers ; and in the 
twenty-fourth, it is stated that neither public prayers should 
be said nor should sacraments be administered in a language 
unknown to the people. The twenty-fifth and following, 
down to the thirty-second inclusive, regard the sacraments, 
the sacrifice, the dispositions required in the minister, and 
the validity of marriages contracted by bishops, priests, 
and deacons. The thirty-third shows in what light those 
should be viewed who have incurred the sentence of 
excommunication. Traditions and ceremonies; the na- 
ture of the homilies, and the authority of the ordinal of 
Edward VI; the authority of the sovereign, and the 
rejection of the Roman pontiff; the lawfulness of inflicting 
capital punishment, and of waging war, are defined in 
Articles 34, 35, 36, and 37. The doctrine of community 
of goods maintained by the Anabaptists is afterwards 
rejected; and in the thii'ty-ninth article, the lawfulness 
of swearing under certain circumstances is maintained. 
Such are the articles of religion professed in the times 
of Elizabeth, and still adhered to, if subscription be any 
evidence of adherence, and not simply as some have main- 
tained, an evidence of non-resistence. The leading doc- 
trines of Catholicity were again denied: such as the 
mass, the real presence, the supremacy of the pontiff, 



The English Reformation. 79 

and the inerrancy of the Church ; besides those other 
doctrines comprised in the twenty-second article, &c, 
to which I have already drawn the reader's attention, 
though Elizabeth and her Parliament, and the nation at 
large, had formerly professed their belief in them. Awful, 
however, as was the task of framing a fresh code of belief, 
it seems to have engaged the attention of the houses of 
convocation for a very brief period indeed. 1 The articles 
of Edward furnished the materials; these were approved 
of, or rejected, or added to, according to the humour of 
the moment, or the convictions of the men engaged in 
the work of framing the national code of belief. If JSTeale's 
statement be correct, the intrinsic value of the articles is 
low indeed. He observes that the mass of the members 
of the convocation, to whom the Established Church owes 
its thirty-nine Articles, scarcely knew how to append 
their names to the instrument which they palmed on the 
nation, as divine in its enunciations. This is at least cer- 
tain : the ignorance of the officiating clergy of England 
at this period, was absolutely unprecedented. The pri- 
vation of the Catholic prelacy, as well as of a hundred of 
the leading clergy, on account of their unflinching ad- 
herence to the ancient creed; the suppression of the 
monasteries and of numerous schools and colleges, wherein 
the English youth had been formerly instructed in every 
branch of literature; and the frequent changes of the 
national belief which eventuated in the greatest civil and 
religious discord, all tended to dry up the fountain of 
letters, and stop the progress of education. In the year, 
after the publication of the articles, it was stated by the 

1 For some interesting facts connected with the compilers of the 
articles, see Heylin's Reform., p. 159, part the second, ad ann. 1562. 



80 The English Reformation. 

speaker of the House of Commons, that " the Universities 
were decayed, and the great market towns without either 
school or preacher, while immorality was stalking over 
the land." l In 1565, not even a preacher for the queen 
could be found. 2 Parker, whose authority was paramount 
at the period of the passing of the articles, writes to Cecil 
in a pitiful strain relative to the clergy, whom Elizabeth 
well designated hedge parsons : " Take away," he says, 
"a few of the clergy, namely, those who were specially 
appointed to preach before her highness, and I take the 
rest to be but a simple sort." 3 Unimpeachable evidence 
on this head may be gathered from the private correspon- 
dence which passed between the English and foreign 
reformers, at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. In the 
first series of the Zurich letters may be seen a letter sent 
from Coventry by Lever to Bullinger, on the 10th of 
July, 1560. Among other things he observes : " Many 
of our parishes have no clergyman, and some dioceses are 
without a bishop. And out of that very small number 
who administer the sacraments throughout this great 
country, there is hardly one in a hundred who is both 
able and willing to preach the word of God; but all 
persons are obliged to read only what is prescribed in the 
books." 4 In the same year, the most learned man of the 
Protestant party, Jewel, of Salisbury, wrote the following 
words to Peter Martyr, on the 6th of November : " We 
are only wanting in preachers ; and of these there is a 
great and alarming scarcity. The schools also are entirely 

1 Collier, ii, 480. 2 Strype's Parker, i, 401. 

3 Ibid, ii, 226. For further instances of this wretched posture of affairs, 
See Cooper's " Anglican Church, the Slave of the State, 111 pp. 87-8-9. 

4 Zurich Letters, Parker Soc. Ed. p. 85. 



The English Reformation. 81 

deserted ; so that unless God look favourably upon us, we 
cannot hope for any supply in future. The existing 
preachers, who are few in number, those especially who 
have any ability, are listened to by the people with favor 
and attention." 5 Stapleton, who wrote so ably against 
Jewel, calls the ministers of Protestantism, "common 
people taken from the high roads and taverns " (e triviis 
et tabemis). Even in Edward's time, the decay of learning 
was perceived and deplored. Latimer, in the last sermon 
he preached before the youthful sovereign, says : " I think 
that there be at this day ten thousand students less than 
were within these twenty years, and fewer preachers ; and 
that is the cause of rebellion. If there were good bishops, 
there should be no rebellion." 6 

Still, whatever may have been the extent of the igno- 
rance of these men, or however recently they may have 
altered their religion, they were no sooner in power, than 
they claimed obedience from others, who in intellect, 
learning, and consistency, were undoubtedly their betters. 
They endeavoured to force the new articles on the nation, 
and to make doubt and opposition to them a legal crime. 
It was proposed that " whosoever should preach, declare, 
write or speak anything in derogation, depraving or des- 
pising the said book (of articles), or any doctrine therein 
contained, and be thereof lawfully convicted before any 
ordinary, he should be ordered as in case of heresy, or 
else should forfeit 100 marks for the first offence, 400 
for the second, and all his goods and chattels, with per- 
petual imprisonment, for the third." 7 Fortunately this 

5 Loc. cit. p. 92. 

6 See Latimer's Works, vol i, p. 269 ; Parker Soc. Ed. 

7 Strype, 282. See too ibidem, 302, and Wilkins, iv, 241. 

E2 



82 The English 'Reformation. 

unjust and insulting act was repudiated by the council. 
In 1584, which is known in our history as "the woeful 
year of subscription," the clergy were called upon to 
subscribe the Articles ex animo, as also the Three Articles 
of the Queen's Supremacy, and the Book of Common 
Prayer. Eventually every priest was forbidden to offer 
up, and every Catholic to assist at, the Sacrifice of the 
Mass. The doctrines of Catholicity and its practices 
were equally proscribed ; and he who dared to contravene 
the law, soon had to feel the effects of his opposition. 
Imprisonments, fines, death, — these were the penalties 
which the Catholic had to endure for following the dic- 
tates of his conscience. His creed was as severely inter- 
dicted in England in the sixteenth century by the framers 
of the new religion, as Christianity itself had previously 
been during the reigns of Nero, Tiberius, Dioclesian, 
and Maximian. 

It may be useful to state somewhat in detail, what was 
done then and afterwards, to secure assent to the Articles. 
1° By Canon V, it was thus ordained : " Whoever shall 
affirm, that any of the Thirty -nine Articles, . . .of the 
year 1562, are in any part superstitious or erroneous. . . . 
let him he excommunicated ipso facto" 2° By the 13 
Eliz. c. 12, it was enjoined, that no one should be admitted 
to the order of deacons, or be allowed to preach, or be 
admitted to any benefice with cure, unless such person 
had subscribed the Articles. 3° James I, in the declara- 
tion which ordinarily precedes the Articles, published in 
the book of Common Prayer, says, " that if any public 
reader, in either of our Universities, or any head or master 
of a college, or any other person respectively in either of 



The English Reformation. 83 

them, shall affix any sense to any Article, or shall publicly 
read, determine, or hold any public disputations, or suffer 
any such to be held either way, in either the Universities 
or colleges respectively ; or if any divine in the Univer- 
sities shall preach or print anything either way, other 
than is already established in convocation with our royal 
assent; he or they the offenders shall be liable to our dis- 
pleasure, and the Church's censure, in our commission 
ecclesiastical as well as any other ; and we will see there 
shall be due execution upon them." Further, he " re- 
quires all his loving subjects to continue in the uniform 
profession of the Articles, and prohibits the least differ- 
ence from the said Articles." 4° By the 13th and 14th 
of Charles II, c. 4, it was commanded, "that every go- 
vernor or head of a college or hall in either of the Univer- 
sities, or of the Colleges of Westminster, Winchester or 
Eton, shall within one month next after his election or 
collation and admission into the same government or head- 
ship, openly and publicly in the church, chapel, or other 
public place of the college or hall, and in the presence of 
the fellows and scholars of the same, or the greater part 
of them there resident, subscribe unto the Thirty-nine 
Articles, and declare his unfeigned assent and consent unto 
and approbation thereof"; and after this the penalties are 
named for violating this ordinance. Well might Went- 
worth, as he considered the arbitrary and dictatorial con- 
duct of the bishops of his day, say to the house of Commons, 
of which he was a member, " Sure, Mr. Speaker, the 
speech, { you will refer yourselves to us, as to the agree- 
ment, of the Homilies, 8fc. with the icord of God,' seemed 
to me to be a Pope-like speech ; and I fear lest our bishops 



/ 



84 The English 'Reformation. 

do attribute this of the Pope's canons unto themselves, 
Papa non potest errare." 1 These words the reader Trill 
know how to apply to the regal ordinances. Fallible, their 
framers acted as if infallibility had been their attribute ; 
and though reformers themselves, and changers in matters 
of religion, in the widest sense of the word, they forbad 
others to do what they themselves were so proud of having 
done, and forbad it under the heaviest penalties. What 
if they had been restrained by similar ordinances ? 

In taking a retrospective view of the rise of the three sets 
of Articles, &c. it will not be necessary to say much with 
regard to the ordinances of Henry VIII. These were 
soon rejected, in nearly their entirety, by the very indi- 
viduals who had framed them, and they are still rejected 
by the Anglican Establishment. Henry would maintain 
their orthodoxy; and so Prelates, Parliament, and people 
were told to look. upon them as containing neither more 
nor less than the revelations of the Almighty. They were 
subscribed, and Cranmer, as well as Henry, seemed to 
believe them. 

The period of Edward's supremacy was disgraced by 
the most flagrant vacillation, and contradiction, and pan- 
dering to the wishes of the German reformers. At first, 
Catholic doctrines and Catholic practices were enjoined; 
next these doctrines were denounced, and the practices 
which had been proclaimed in the first Anglican Prayer- 
book to be sacred, and sanctioned by the Holy Spirit, were 
eventually suppressed by the framers of the first Prayer- 
book. Cranmer was the chief mover in the Reformation, 
and the adviser of the king in matters concerning religion 
during the whole period of Edward's life, as he had been 
1 D'Ewe's Journal, p. 239. 



The English Reformation. 85 

during the life-time of Edward's father ; and we have seen 
what kind of man this Cranmer was. As we have had 
already occasion to observe, Cranmer's work was not 
marked either by sincerity or by a love of religion: in- 
deed, these things were obviously wanting in all that he 
did. Self in some form was his idol ; and to save self, the 
unworthy possessor of the See of S. Augustine was ready 
to forswear himself and abandon his God. The admirers 
of Cranmer may deny this : but those only will be his 
admirers who have never studied his history in connexion 
with his perjury on becoming Archbishop, his subservi- 
ency to Henry in marrying and divorcing, his violation 
of his solemn engagement to lead a life of celibacy, his 
assenting to the Bloody Statute in which he did not be- 
lieve, his proclaiming the almost divine character of a 
Prayer-book which he altered, his subscribing a document 
by virtue of which the rightful sovereign was to be 
deprived of her throne, and his raising up a religion, 
buttressed up by Homilies, Prayer-book and Articles, 
which he was willing to condemn and tear down piece by 
piece, provided he might be permitted to extend his already 
too lengthened life by a few months or years. If Christi- 
anity had been thus characterized by inconsistency in its 
origin, it must have been universally condemned, as want- 
ing the first mark of divinity — truth. Keason and reve- 
lation would have alike denounced it: this same reason 
and revelation bid us now repudiate the Cranmerian 
system. Had Jesus Christ, or rather, had his Apostles, 
when commissioned to go and teach a world, put up to pull 
down, and pulled down to put up again, they would have 
earned, and deservedly, the title of impostors; and are 
those who did so, at the moment in which they were pre- 



86 The English 'Reformation. 

tending to reconstruct the fabric of Christianity, deserving 
of a more honorable name ? 

As for the Elizabethan code, this being substantially 
the same with that of Edward, it is deserving of no further 
attention. It was imposed upon the nation in opposition 
to the teaching of the olden prelacy, who had been de- 
# prived, merely because they could not be drawn away, by 
the wishes of Elizabeth, from the creed of their fathers — 
as also of the vast bulk of the learned and pious of the 
land, both of the clergy and laity. Elizabeth, who had been 
a believer in the Six Articles during the time of Henry, 
and a professor of the Forty-two in the reign of her bro- 
ther, and a Catholic, not only during the reign of Mary, 
but also at the period of her coronation, — she was crowned 
by a Catholic prelate during the solemnization of the Mass 
— was, as her whole history proves, absolute and despotic. 
Her will was law; and by that will, civil and religious 
observances were alike regulated. Jewel, 1 in a letter 
written from London, on the 22nd of May, 1560, gives 
us an early proof of the queen's determination: "Bonner," 
he says, ec the monk Feckenham, Pate, Story the civilian, 
and Watson, are sent to prison, for having obstinately 
refused attendance on public worship, and everywhere 
declaiming and railing against that religion which we now 
profess. For the queen, a most discreet and excellent 
woman, most manfully and courageously declared, that 
she would not allow any of her subjects to dissent from 
this religion — the religion of a year and a half's antiquity 
— with impunity." 2 The writer bears evidence too, to 
Elizabeth's time-serving, and to the reason of the conver- 

1 Jewel had already twice changed his religion. 

2 Zurich Letters, vol. i, 79. 



The English Preformation. 87 

sion of the people. Writing to Martyr on trie 14th. of 
April, 1559 , he thus gives expression to his convictions : 
"If the queen herself, would but banish it (the Mass) 
from her private chapel, the whole thing might easily be 
got rid of. Of such importance among us are the examples 
of princes. For whatever is done after the example of the 
sovereign, the people, as you well knoio, suppose to be done 
rightly. She has, however, so regulated this Mass of hers 
( which she has hitherto retained only from the circum- 
stances of the times), that although many things are done 
therein, which are scarcely to be endured, it may yet be 
heard without any great danger. But this woman, ex- 
cellent as she is, and earnest in the cause of true religion, 
notwithstanding she desires a thorough change as early as. 
possible, cannot however be induced to effect such change 
without the sanction of law; lest the matter should seem 
to have been accomplished, not so much by the judgment 
of discreet men, as in compliance with the impulse of a 
furious multitude. Meanwhile many alterations in religion 
are effected in Parliament, in spite of the opposition, 

AND GAINSAYING, AND DISTURBANCE OF THE BISHOPS. 

These, however, I will not mention, as they are not yet 
publicly known, and are often brought on the anvil to be 
hammered over again." 3 Still, notwithstanding the oppo- 
sition of bishops and clergy, notwithstanding the opposition 
of the numerous members of the Universities, which still 
clung to the old faith, — " In Oxford," as Jewel says, 
"there were hardly two individuals who thought with 

3 Ibid. p. 18. The Clergy remained firm in their opposition. Cox, in a 
letter to Weidner, says, that " whilst of the laity many became Protestants, 
of the clergy there were none at all." — See Zurich Letters, 27 and 39. 



88 The English Reformation. 

the Reformers ; in "there is," he again observes, "a dismal 
solitude in our Universities : the young men are flying 
about in all directions, rather than come to an agreement 
in matters of religion." 1 — Elizabeth carried on her work 
through the instrumentality of her Parliament. Though, 
as Hilles notices, "nothing had been publicly determined, 
down to the 28th Feb. 1559, with respect to the abolishing 
Popish superstition, and the re-establishment of the Chris- 
tian religion," there was, however, " a general expectation 
that all rites and ceremonies would shortly be reformed 
by our faithful citizens, and other godly men in Parlia- 
ment, either after the pattern which was lately in use in 
the time of King Edward VI, or which is set forth by 
the Protestant princes of Germany, in the Confession of 
Augsburg." 2 This anticipation was prophetic; for Lever 
was able to inform Bullinger in the following August, 
how " Popery had been abolished by act of Parliament." 3 
Still, though the Queen, for obvious reasons, was willing 
to spite the Pontiff, she was not always willing to comply 
with the wishes of the bishops of her own nomination and 
appointment. By her obstinacy, or slowness of belief, she 
certainly tested their subserviency. In the first place, she 
repudiated what her father and brother had accepted and 
had forced upon a people's assent, — the title of Head of 
the Church; 4 she retained the crucifix in her chapel, 
notwithstanding the reasonings, and anxieties, and scruples 
of her bishops, and even bishops were obliged by her " to 
officiate at the table of the Lord ; one as priest, another as 
deacon, and a third as sub-deacon, before the image of the 

1 See Zurich Letters, pp. 33, 40. 2 Ibid. vol. ii, 16, 17. 

3 Ibid, p. 30. * Ibid. vol. i, pp. 29, 33. 



The English 'Reformation. 89 

crucifix, or at least not far from it, with candles, and 
habited in the golden vestments of the Papacy. 5 ' 5 The 
bishops felt, or affected to feel, scruples at the conduct 
of their sovereign ; they wondered if they could lawfully 
conform to her wishes ; and to solve their doubts, they 
deemed it requisite or prudent to ask the advice of the 
Reformers on the continent. Bullinger, and Bucer, and 
Martyr gave their oracular responses; but still, though the 
answers were far from satisfactory, the prelates did not 
think it expedient to avow their own convictions in such a 
way as to incur the displeasure of the queen. She was, if 
not head, at least governor of the English Church, and the 
English prelacy; and to the governor's wishes, the pre- 
lates quietly acceded here, whatever might be the extent 
of their opposition there. Had not the bench of bishops 
bided their time, they would in all probability have heard 
the Virgin Queen declare on oath, — Cox of Ely was thus 
frightened into order — that she would unfrock them. 

How devoid of conscientious liberty the clergy were 
expected to be, can easily be gathered from a very impor- 
tant letter written to Bullinger by Withers and Barthelot. 
In answer to some statements sent to Switzerland, by the 
Bishops of London and Winchester, they observe : i( On 
the 26th of March, 1566, all the London ministers were 
summoned before the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
Bishop of London, the Dean of Westminster, and some 
canonists ; and were there asked whether they were willing 
to acquiesce in the royal proceedings in matters of religion 

5 See Sampson's letter to Martyr, Jan. 6, 1560, ibid. p. 63, as also 66-7, 
74, &c. The cross proved a cross indeed to the new clergy. They wished 
to remove it altogether, but could not. To effect their object, they strove 
to enlist the services of Bullinger, &c. 



90 The English Reformation. 

ordained and to be ordained .... Those who refused 
compliance were deprived. The archbishop, too, when 
he grants anyone a licence to preach, binds him in these 
words : ( Provided always, that in your sermons, yon shall 
not persuade the people to procure any alteration or in- 
novation in religion, beyond or contrary to that which the 
Queen's majesty has already effected, or shall effect' " l 
" There is power given by act of Parliament, to the queen 
and the archbishop, to introduce whatever ceremonies they 
please into every Church in the kingdom." Again we 
are told, " that if anyone should presume to interpret the 
Scriptures, without their (the bishops') permission, he is 
brought to trial as being guilty of contempt ; and should 
he not then conform, they punish him by imprisonment 
or exile. " Addressing again the Elector Palatine, Fre- 
derick III, whose interest he sought for the amelioration 
of the doctrine, the administration of the sacraments, and 
the discipline of the English Church, Withers at last thus 
prays : " We beg and entreat, .... that you will earnestly 
pray and obtain (and this we hope you will be able to 
accomplish) for those who abominate the relics of Anti- 
christ, the liberty of not being obliged, either to adopt them 
against their conscience, or to relinquish the ministry" 
Was there ever slavery like to this ? to be bound to a few 
individuals whose fallibility was acknowledged, and whose 
authority to legislate in matters of religion, neither had 
been, nor could be established ! This authority had been 
assumed, and like every other usurpation, was defended 
with a tyrant's sword. The Reformers were taught that 
to think for self was a duty ; but thought was severely 
punished, unless it chanced to accord with the wishes of 
1 Zurich Letters, ii, 148, and pp. 150, 161-2. 2 Ibid, ii, 163. 



The English Reformation. 91 

the higher powers : they were bid to believe that they 
had shaken off a yoke, when they rejected the authority 
of the Pontiff; but they soon discovered that the yoke of 
the Pontiff had been removed for the far heavier one of 
a Queen, and that to each of them might be applied the 
poet's words 

Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim. 

e( We endure" says Pilkington, " I must confess, many 
things against our inclinations, and groan under them, 
which, if we wished ever so much, no entreaty can remove. 
We are under authority, and cannot make any innovation 
without the sanction of the queen, or abrogate any thing 
without the authority of the laws ; and the only alternative 
now allowed us is, whether we will bear with these things, 
or disturb the peace of the Church." 3 Such is the con- 
fession of a Protestant bishop in the year 1573 ! ! 

The authority of the Articles then, is evidently nought : 
the whole system of the Reformation was clearly a human, 
a royal, a temporizing, and a self-seeking enactment. The 
very framers of the Establishment had no faith in it, as 
their conduct proved ; they were willing to change and 
reform, reform and change again, according to the will of 
the sovereign. Elizabeth, and Parker and Jewel, the 
three who ruled the English Church, were no better than 
Henry, and Edward and Cranmer, their reforming prede- 
cessors. These were all changelings, and so were they. 
These were reckless of a nation's feelings, of the teachings 
of Christendom, and of the will of the Spiritual order, and 
Elizabeth and hers allowed only one authority to be 
obeyed, and one code of laws to be observed ; that autho- 

3 Zurich Letters, i, 287-8. 



92 The English Reformation. 

rity was her own, and that code of laws was the system of 
which she herself approved. "Where Elizabeth, or Edward, 
or Henry, or their followers, discovered that, though 
fallible they did not err, and that to them and to their 
parliaments it was given, even when in opposition to the 
teaching of the body of the clergy — as was the case 1° in 
the beginning of Henry's Reformation, and afterwards in 
the reign of Elizabeth, — to conclude aright in matters of 
religion, and be entitled to denounce and punish those as 
heretics who differed from their creeds, they have not been 
pleased to tell us. Assuredly, such a notion is in direct 
opposition to the teaching of the Church, and the express 
word of the New Testament, as we have already seen. 
And yet, to such lengths did men run in order to prop 
up the new system, as to pass the following enactment : 
(i Nothing shall henceforth be accounted heresy, but what 
is so adjudged by the holy Scripture, or in one of the four 
first general councils, or in any other national or provincial 
council, determining according to the word of God, or 
finally, which shall be so adjudged in the time to come by 
the court of parliament, with the assent of the clergy in 
convocation" 1 Eliz. Acts of parliament alone can make 
Articles of faith, and acts of parliament alone can declare 
any doctrine heretical ! Such is the great principle, of 
Protestantism. This proves that the Church of England 
is certainly of this world. It is very different from the 
kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world. Light and 
darkness are not more opposed, than are the principles and 
establishment of the one Church of Christ, and those of the 
State Church of the Sixteenth Century, which came forth 
the " accuser " of a world, on its first appearance in 1534. 
How can the Catholic, or any one indeed who professes 



The English Reformation. 93 

Christianity to be a divine system, a system confirmed and 
ratified by such evidences as render the repudiation of it 
criminal, be expected to feel or to show, any reverence for 
Articles/ or Homilies, or Prayer-book, emanating from 
such a source as has been already pointed out, as the foun- 
tain head of Protestantism ? Protestantism in its origin 
and numerous developments is not only simply unproved, 
it is opposed to every thing sacred in religion, either as a 
dogma, a practice, or a proof. 

Notwithstanding the 4th, 5th, and 36th Canons of the 
Synod of James I, in 1603, and the ordinances of Eliza- 
beth already adduced, it seems to me, that even Anglicans 
have hardly dared to face the difficulty involved in the 
framing and subscribing of the Articles. They appear 
indeed, like the writers in the British Critic, more dis- 
posed to look upon them as " Articles of peace," than as 
" Articles of faith ; " as statements rather intended to bind 
together the heterogeneous particles of Protestantism, than 
as dogmatical decisions intended to bind the conscience. 
" "We do not look," says Bishop Bramhall, " upon the 
Articles of the Church of England, as essentials of saving 
faith, or legacies of Christ and his Apostles; but in a 
mean, as pious opinions fitted for the preservation of unity ; 
neither do we oblige every man to believe them, but only 
not to contradict them" 1 " The Church of England," 
says Stillingfieet, " excommunicates such as openly oppose 
her doctrine, supposing her fallible ; the Roman Church 
excommunicates all, who will not believe, whatever she 
defines to be infallibly true." 2 Bishop Sanderson declares 
that the only thing he ever meant whilst subscribing the 
Articles was to declare that " the constant doctrine of the 
1 Schism Guarded, p. 190. 2 Stilling, p. 104. 



94 The English Reformation. 

Church of England is so pure and orthodox, that whoso- 
ever believes it and lives according to it, shall be saved ; 
and that there is no error in it which may necessitate any 
man to disturb the peace or renounce the communion of it." 1 
And Chilling-worth's notions of subscription are contained 
in the following declaration : "I do verily believe the 
Church of England a true member of the Church (Catholic), 
that she wants nothing necessary to salvation, and holds 
nothing repugnant to it." 2 

Others have spoken even more clearly in relation to the 
character of the Articles. So far from looking on them as 
expressions of the divine mind, they have denounced them 
in the most unmeasured terms. " Understanding," says 
Jeremy Bentham, " that of such signature, the effect and 
sole object was the declaring after reflection, with so- 
lemnity, and upon record, that the propositions therein 
contained were in my opinion every one of them true; what 
seemed to me a matter of duty was, to examine them in 
that view, in order to see whether that were really the 
case. The examination was unfortunate. In some of 
them no meaning at all could I find ; in others no meaning 
but one, which, in my eyes, was but too plainly irrecon- 
cilable either to reason or to Scripture. Communicating 
my distress to some of my fellow collegiates, I found them 
sharers in it." 3 Paley's ideas of the truthfulness of the 
Articles were equally low. " They who contend," he 
observes, " that nothing less can justify subscription to the 
thirty-nine Articles, than the actual belief of each and 
every proposition contained in them, must suppose that 

1 Bishop Sanderson, apud '■''Free Disquisition" p. 168. \ 

2 Maizeaux ; s Life of Chillingworth, p. 168. 

3 Life of Bentham, apud Penny Encyc. 



The English Reformation. 95 

the legislature expected the consent of ten thousand men, 
and that in perpetual succession, not to one controverted 
proposition, but to many hundreds. It is difficult to con- 
ceive how this could be expected by any who observed the 
incurable diversity of human opinions upon all subjects, 
short of demonstration." 4 Archdeacon Balguy says, ( ' The 
Articles, we will say, are not exactly what we might wish 
them to be. Some of them are expressed in doubtful 
terms ; others are inaccurate, perhaps unphilosophical ; 
others again may chance to mislead an ignorant reader into 
some erroneous opinion ; but is there any one among them 
that leads to immorality ? " 5 

Bishop Watson even doubts the Church's right to 
frame articles of faith. " It is still a question," he says, 
" whether any Christian Church has a right to require 
from its public teachers, any other profession of faith 
than that of a belief in the Bible, as containing a reve- 
lation from God ? It is still a question, whether, granting 
the abstract right, the use of it be expedient in any degree, 
and to what degree, in the present condition of the Church 
of England." 6 

Nay, more, it is openly and honestly avowed by Fel- 
lowes, that " since the time of Archbishop Laud, when an 
Armenian priesthood began to officiate in the Church, 
notwithstanding the Calvinistic complexion of the articles, 
the doctrine of original sin, though supported in the ninth 
article, has never been either believed, or inculcated by, at 
least nine-tenths of the clergy of the Established Church. 
The same (he adds) may be said of many other articles 

* Moral, &c. Philosophy, p. 45. 5 P. 293. 
6 Tracts, vol. vi, 3rd page from end, 2nd Ed. 



96 The English Reformation. 

which have been either openly impugned or tacitly denied 
by many bishops and dignitaries of the Establishment, 
and by numbers of the inferior clergy, who have shed a 
lustre on the society to which they belonged, by their 
erudition and their virtues. Had the Church of England, 
adopting a less liberal and enlightened policy, hurled her 
anathemas and levelled her persecutions against all those 
who supported any tenet which was at all adverse to any 
one of those complex propositions, which are called the 
Articles of the Church, our Taylors, our Barrows, our 
Tillotsons, our Clarks, our Jeffreys, our Hoadleys, our 
Jortins, and our Newcomes, and, in short, the whole 
galaxy of our best divines, must have sought a refuge 

among the members of a different communion But, 

when the Church of England got rid of one Pope, it never 
intended to raise up thirty -nine in his place; but what 
would the thirty-nine Articles be, but thirty-nine Popes, 
if, instead of the Scriptures being their expositors, they 
were made the infallible expositors of the Scriptures" l 
There is much truth in all this. Anglicans do teach 
diametrically opposite doctrines. The real presence, and 
an actual absence, of Christ in the Holy Eucharist ; the 
power of absolution, and a scornful rejection of this power, 
when exercised after confession ; the collation of grace in 
baptism, and the empty character of this rite of Chris - 

1 Memoirs of the Life and Doctrines of Christ, vol. i, pref. xix, and 
seqq. From the history of our own times, we know how truthful are 
the observations just made. High Church and low Church, Puseyites 
and Evangelicals, tear the Anglican Church to pieces. The high Church 
man proves his tenets by high Church evidence ; and the Evangelical his 
by writings of the Clapham school. So apparent are these differences, 
that the Government dares not allow the Convocation to act as a free and 
independent body. The permission would be suicidal. 



The English Reformation. 97 

tianity, are and have been respectively maintained by 
men who had sworn to receive the articles in their plain, 
grammatical sense. Whether or not it be true to say, 
that the thirty-nine Articles would in the case named, be 
equivalent to thirty-nine Popes, I leave others to deter- 
mine : but this is at least true ; when the Pope was 
rejected, the Sovereign and Parliament assumed an autho- 
rity which the Catholic Church never did or could exer- 
cise. The former made their own will, law; and accord- 
ing to this will, the people were bid to change their 
religious creeds. Though fallible, they dictated as if 
infallible; and though themselves changeable, they de- 
manded an extent of subserviency, which not even those 
on the Rock could have exacted. Instead of obeying an 
authority whose age was venerable, and whose title to 
rule was evidenced in the most solemn manner, Protes- 
tants found themselves the slaves of the State, even in 
matters of religion, though its authority to legislate in 
such matters had only been established by the despotism 
of force, and the threats of a cruel policy. The insur- 
gents against unity, demanded unity ; the destroyers of 
all existing creeds, raised up a creed ; and the opposers 
of infaUibility and inerrency, exacted under the most 
severe penalties, submission and assent to the teachings of 
a fallible and failing and changing system. The illus- 
trious Count de Maistre has excellently described the 
state of Anglicanism, in his far-famed work entitled, 
" The Pope." " The Anglican Church is the only asso- 
ciation in the world which has declared itself null and 
ridiculous, by the very act which constitutes it. In this 
act it has solemnly proclaimed thirty-nine Articles, 
neither more nor less, absolutely necessary to salvation, 

F 



98 Hie English Reformation. 

and which must be sworn to in order to belong to this 
Church. 1 But one of the articles (the 25th) formally de- 
clares that God, in constituting his Church, has not left 
infallibihty upon earth ; that all the Churches, beginning 
with that of Rome, have fallen into error ; that they have 
grossly erred, even as regards dogma, even as regards 
morality; so that none of them possess the right to lav 
down a creed ; and that the Scriptures are the only rule 
of faith. The Anglican Church declares, therefore, to 
her children, that she is, indeed, entitled to command 
them, but that they are equally entitled to refuse her 
their obedience. At the same moment, with the same 
pen and ink, on the same paper, she enunciates dogmas, 
and declares she has no right to do so. I think I may be 
allowed to entertain the conviction, that of the interminable 
catalogue of human follies, this is one which will always 
hold a distinguished rank. After this solemn declaration 
of the Anglican Church, which nullifies itself, there was 
only wanting the testimony of the civil power to ratify 
this judgment ; and this testimony I find in the Parlia- 
mentary debates of the year 1805, on the subject of 
Catholic Emancipation: " Call to mind, (said the Attorney- 
general,) that it is quite the same thing for England to 
repeal the laws enacted against the Catholics, or to have 
immediately a Catholic Parliament, and the Catholic 
religion, instead of the existing Establishment" The 
commentary on this wonderfully ingenuous observation at 
once occurs. The Attorney-general might as well have 
said in as many words — i( our religion, as you know, is 
nothing else than a purely civil establishment, having no 

1 This observation must be limited to the clergy. As is obvious, how- 
ever, it does not affect the illustration or argument in band. 



The English Reformation. 99 

other foundation than the law of the country, and the 
interest of each individual, &c." 2 

From what has been .said, it appears that not only are 
the articles valueless as an authority, they are, moreover, 
directly opposed to the first principle of Protestantism : 
they in fact stultify the very idea of Reformation. They 
establish a creed ; whereas the Reformation began in sub- 
verting all creeds, and moreover maintaining the incom- 
petency not only of particular churches, but of the 
Church in the aggregate, to form a creed. They main- 
tain the solibiblical system; whilst the subscription in- 
tended to ensure the submission of the clergy to the 
articles, and without which subscription the articles would 
have quickly become a dead and useless letter, tied the 
minister down to dogmas about which the Bible says not 
a syllable — to dogmas, in fact, in direct opposition to the 
Bible which had been made, in word at least, the rule of 
all truth. With one observation more, I will conclude this 
chapter, which has already been too much extended. 

The English Articles, as we have seen, were drawn up 

2 Du Pape, Eng. Trans., p. 350-1. To those who have attended to the 
declarations recently made in Parliament (June 1854), during the 
discussion of the question connected with the admission of Dissenters 
into the University of Oxford, the previous extracts, drawn from the 
writings of some of the leading scholars of Anglicanism, will appear 
particularly striking. Every word which I have written has been more 
than confirmed. It has been publicly stated, that the Articles are full of 
contradictions ; that they are not known, much less believed in, by too 
many of those who subscribe them ; and further, that the late Bishop of 
Norwich, Stanley, declared, that he had never known a man who 
either did or could believe them. These parliamentary declarations are 
of great service: they expose more and more the hollowness of the 
Anglican system, and prove how little dependence is to be placed on the 
subscriptions even of clergymen, who serve the Establishment. 



100 The English Reformation. 

in 1562. In that year, or not very long after, they 
became the standard of orthodoxy. They were subscribed 
by the ministers of the Elizabethan establishment, who 
promised to regulate their instructions by the statements 
contained in the new code. The anomaly was indeed 
allowed to exist, of a clergy preaching one doctrine, and 
of a people believing another : still the articles were from 
the date named, the standard of ministerial orthodoxy — 
the standard, in a word, of the Church, as established and 
recognized by Parliament. These articles were a formal 
protest against Catholic unity. They emphatically denied 
what was elsewhere believed, and what had been believed 
uniformly in this land from the period of England's con- 
version in the second century, down to the apostacy in the 
sixteenth. They repudiated that which even the Centuri- 
ators of Magdeburg, and Gibbon, have allowed to have 
been maintained from ' the beginning. " A well-informed 
man, (says Gibbon,) cannot resist the weight of historical 
evidence, which establishes that, in the whole period of the 
four first ages of the Church, the principal points of the 
Papistical doctrines were already admitted in theory and 
in practice." l So obvious is this, that even Bishop 
Newton, whom none will suspect of saying one unneces- 
sary word in favour of the antiquity of Catholicity, is 
forced to allow, that "the seeds of popery were sown 
even in the Apostles' times." 3 He might have gone 
further : he might have said, and said truly, that they 
were sown even in the times of and by Jesus Christ. 
Mosheim contents himself, as he records the doctrines of 
each century, with denouncing as superstitious whatever 

1 Gibbon, Memoir, vol. i, c. 1. 2 Dissert, on the Prophecies, vol. iii, p. 148. 



The English Reformation. 101 

may be opposed to his own views. Referring to the doc- 
trines of the fifth age — an age which was illustrated by 
the virtues and learning of a Jerome, an Ambrose, an 
Augustine, a Chrysostom, an Optatus, a Prudentius, and 
a host of other champions of orthodoxy, — he says ; " The 
happy souls of departed Christians were invoked by num- 
bers, and their aid implored by assiduous and fervent 

prayers The images of those who, during their 

lives^ had acquired the reputation of uncommon sanctity, 
were now honored with a particular worship in several 

places A singular and irresistible efficacy was also 

attributed to the bones of martyrs, and to the figure of 

the cross, in defeating the attempts of Satan We 

shall not enter here into a particular account of the public 
supplications, the holy pilgrimages, the superstitious ser- 
vices paid to departed souls, the multiplication of temples, 

altars, &c The famous Pagan doctrine, concerning 

the purification of departed souls, by means of a certain 
kind of fire, was more amply explained and confirmed 
now, than it had formerly been." 3 Nor is Neander less 
explicit than his predecessor Mosheim in reference to 
the early belief in, and practices of, Catholicity : " From the 
actions of daily life, (he observes,) in which this sign 
(of the cross) was everywhere customarily employed, and 
which were thus to be consecrated and sanctified, the 
sign probably passed over at an early period, to the places 
where the Christian communities assembled for worship. 
.... At Rome, the name of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, 
being often coupled together as martyrs, and the memory 
of both celebrated on the same day, it came about, that 
the figure of Christ attended by these two Apostles was 
3 Mosheim's History, vol. i, p. 382-3-4. 



102 The English Reformation. 

painted on the walls Images of martyrs, venerated 

monks and bishops, were dispersed far and wide. The 
Antiochians had the likeness of their deceased Bishop 

Meletius engraved on their signets In the course of 

the fourth age, men began, by degrees, to decorate the 

churches also with images To exorcism was now 

added insufflation The Bishop next touched the 

ear of the candidate, saying in the words of Mark, 
6 Ephphatha.' " He next refers to the baptismal renun- 
ciations, double unction, giving of salt, the Missa catechu- 
menorum, and the Missa fidelium, and eventually he adds 
— " "When the Bishop or Presbyter was about to finish 
the consecration, the curtain which hung before the altar 
was drawn up, and the consecrating minister now showed 
to the Church the outward elements of the Supper, which 
till now had been concealed from their eyes, lifting them 
up as the body and blood of the Lord" l Such are the 
avowals of enemies — avowals clouded indeed by the dark- 
ness of misconception, such misconception as originates 
in the preconceived notions of revelation ; — yet even these 
clearly demonstrate this great truth — that the Catholic 
Church of to-day is the Church of the fathers of primitive 
Christianity, even to the giving of a grain of salt, the using 
of the mystic unction, the breathing on the babe, and the 
uttering of a word — "Be thou opened." These truths were 
denounced, these practices were condemned by the Angli- 
can Church. Some were condemned as blasphemous, and 
others as idolatrous : and this condemnation men were or- 
dered to believe, and to believe in numerous instances under 
the severest penalties. Never had such a creed been heard 
of as was proposed in the sixteenth century. No Church 
1 Neander, vol. iii, pp. 405-6-7 and 461-2-3-4, and alibi passim, Bonn's Ed. 



The English Reformation. 103 

in the world, no body of ministers testified to such a line 
of teaching; all was new, as a system. Particular doc- 
trines had been maintained indeed by individuals, such as 
Aerius, Vigilantius, Pelagius, and others who had for 
ages been named in the annals of history only as heretics, 
as men cast out of the Church, as unfortunate persons 
who had been cut off like rotten branches from the vine, 
and whose end was destruction : but the English Articles, 
as Church Articles, were utterly in opposition, as far as 
they contained distinctive doctrines, to all existing creeds 
of any former age, and to the whole system of Church 
teaching which had been successively handed down as a 
revelation of the Almighty. Now this, in Protestant con- 
troversy, is always overlooked. Anglicans speak as if 
this code was wholly unassailable on the score of novelty. 
Nay more, they, the upholders of a new religion, new 
in headship, new in sacraments, new in public worship, 
new in doctrine, new in practices, new in its liturgical 
language, and new in name, dare to allude to the novelty 
of Pope Pius' profession of faith, forgetting that this new 
profession of faith — not creed — is not, even as a published 
document, more than one year posterior to the publica- 
tion of the Anglican Articles ! The Articles were pub- 
lished in 1563, and the profession of faith, known by the 
name of the Fourth Pius, appeared in 1564. If Pius' 
profession of faith be modern because published as late as 
1564. are the Articles old because published as early as 
1563 ? 

Why do I allude to this ? For a very plain reason : to 
show that Anglicanism stands self-convicted whilst reject- 
ing the creed of Pius on the grounds it does. It cannot 
on the grounds adduced, justify its own Articles, or its 



104 TJie English Reformation. 

new creed. Further, I would wish the reader to consider 
the material difference between the two documents. The 
Protestant creed was formed in opposition to the belief of 
Christendom, whilst the Catholic profession of faith was 
nothing more than the expression of Christendom in favour 
of that religion which was spread then, and had been for 
centuries on centuries spread over the world, but which 
a few recent upstarts in Germany and England had de- 
nounced. Protestantism would pull down Catholicity, 
whilst Pius would defend the faith once delivered to the 
saints. All was novelty in the former creed, whilst, as 
Bramhall well observes, in one of his writings, which, I 
do not distinctly remember, Pius did nothing more than 
bind together the doctrines which Catholics universally 
professed. The Pontiff acted in accordance with the cus- 
tom of the Church admitted from the beginning, and 
carried out a principle everywhere acknowledged as true. 
The Apostles or Apostolic men gradually formed the creed 
which bears their name. e( There is," says Mosheim, 
" much more reason and judgment in the opinion of those 
who think that this creed was not all composed at once, 
but from small beginnings was imperceptibly augmented 
in proportion to the growth of heresy, and according to 
the exigences and circumstances of the Church, from 
whence it was designed to banish the errors that daily 
arose." 1 As heresies sprung up the Church opposed 
them ; and according to the exigences of the times, added 
to the symbols such doctrines as heresiarchs had more 
formally attacked: thus teaching the faithful, distinctly 

1 Mosheim, vol. i, p. 94. See this opinion established in King's History 
of the Apostles' Creed. On the other hand see Selvagio, Antiq. Christ, 
vol. ii, p. 366, Vercellis, Anno 1778. 



The English Reformation. 105 

and formally, to avow whatever others openly denied. On 
this principle was formed, by the Fathers of Nice, in the 
year 325, the Nicene Creed : then the consnbstantiality of 
the Son, which Arius and his followers had denied, was 
more distinctly published and declared than it had been 
in the Apostles' Creed ; and in the year 381, to the 
words, " I believe in the Holy Ghost," were added these 
others : " The Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth 
from the Father ; who, together with the Father and the 
Son, is adored and glorified; who spake by the prophets." 2 
Nor was this the last addition made to the Creed of Nice. 
In the Tenth Council of Lyons, the words "filioque " were 
added to the others, l( who proceeds from the Father," to 
express what had been previously denied, and what is 
still denied by the Greek Church — the procession of the 
Holy Spirit from the Son, as well as from the Father. 
These additions were made on principle. The Church 
believed that she was the guardian of the faith ; that she 
was appointed to hand down the truth to all times ; and 
had the right, publicly to testify against all heresy, and to 
demand obedience to all her decisions. She spoke as one 
who had power ; as one who was assisted by the Son who 
was wisdom, and the Holy Spirit who was truth. Such 
was her character in the first age, such too was it in the 
fourth century, such again in 1274, when the Tenth 
Council of Lyons was held, such likewise in 1564, when 
Pius promulgated the Profession of Faith, and such it 
will remain, even unto the consummation of the world : 
Jesus Christ yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Pius and 
the prelates of the Church, testified to the doctrines which 
they had received, and which they were commanded, like 

2 See the Constantinopolitan Creed. 



106 The English Reformation. 

those who had previously borne the burthen of the mi- 
nistry, faithfully to deliver, as St. Basil expresses it, from 
hand to hand, to the rising generation. They claimed no 
power to feign Articles of Faith, to invent, to innovate, 
to oppose the dogmatical teaching of the Church which 
they now represented, but of which they were once only 
the little children, learning what the Church believed : all 
they claimed was to say what was the faith of the Church, 
and to define distinctly that faith. This they did ; that 
they did no more, is established by the unchanged 
belief of Christendom, by the liturgies, the monuments, 
and the hundred other memorials of belief, which still 
endure, of the public faith of the sixteenth and previous 
centuries. Before the Profession of Faith of Pius ap- 
peared, the Mass was offered at every altar; Christ was 
adored in the holy sacrament ; and transubstantiation was 
believed in as an ineffable mystery ; saints were invoked, 
and their memorials were venerated; purgatory was a 
state of temporary suffering on account of sin, in which 
the souls of the dead were helped by the sacrifice and holy 
prayer ; and the faithful, by good works performed for 
this holy end, laboured to obtain the indulgences of 
the Church. Not even were the additions to the creed 
of Pius fresh terms of communion : all Catholics as such 
were previously bound to believe them. That they were 
believed, even the Articles of Protestantism, as well as the 
laws of Edward and Elizabeth, as clearly establish as the 
document which emanated from the Holy See. Assuredly 
the Fathers of Nice and Lyons had not as much extrinsic 
evidence for their additions to the Creed of the Apostles, 
as Catholics in the sixteenth century had, for those ap- 
pended to the previously existing creeds. As Hawarden 



The English Reformation. 107 

well observes, in reference to the wide distinction between 
fresh articles of faith and fresh terms of communion : 
"Articles of Christian faith are the work of God only. 
He made them all, by' revealing them to the Apostles, 
who were commissioned to make them known to the 
Catholic Church ; as she is commissioned, when the pri- 
mitive and Apostolic faith is called in question, to make 
it known to her children. For to make articles of faith, 
and to make them known are quite different things. God 
made them articles of faith; but the Catholic Church 
and the Apostles made them known, as orthodox and 
authentic publishers of the divine revelation. English 
laws are not made, but by King and Parliament: but 
those who print them by authority, make them known to 
the public." 1 

Whilst all is consistency in Catholicity, and conformity 
to ancient usage and more ancient principles, what is the 
position which Protestantism takes, whilst framing articles 
of belief and teaching dogmatically? Why, the reverse 
of consistency. Though fallible, as I have more than 
once noticed, the Anglican Church practically claims to 
be looked upon as infallible ; though opposing the Church 
from which it separated, it disallows all opposition to its 
own ordinances ; though actually anathematizing a belief 
which has been hallowed by the faith and virtues of ages, 
it exacts assent to one, novel and unknown, or if known, 
only known to be denounced by the professors of an olden 

1 Charity and Truth, p. 178-9. This work is really valuable, as are 
indeed all the works of this great scholar and clear-minded writer. I 
recommend it highly to those who cannot understand the doctrine of ex- 
clusive salvation, or the difference between new articles of faith and new 
terms of communion. 



108 The English 'Reformation. 

creed, and by the innovators in other lands. Its decrees 
and ordinances are framed, not in consequence of a belief 
constantly handed down, but they are made to suit the 
feelings of the moment, the gratification of individuals, or 
the chances of aggrandizement, resultant from the forma- 
tion of articles of belief denunciatory of dogmas and cus- 
toms, the profession of which, had eventuated in loading 
the altars of religion with gold, and silver, and precious 
things. Tradition and authority — such authority, I mean, 
as could consistently exercise any kind of control — were 
repudiated and ignored ; and man became, uncommis- 
sioned, unsent, uninspired, a god to his fellow man. 



109 



Cjragte % Jmljr. 

On the Origin and Authority of the Homilies. 



CONTENTS. 

Origin and end of the Homilies. — Eead in all Churches, by order. — Their 
authors. — Character of these authors. — Specimens of their gross incon- 
sistencies and contradictions. — The Homilies approved of by the Articles, 
but disliked by the people. — Signs of dislike. — Condemned as false and 
contradictory. — The justice of this condemnation. — They are worthless 
in themselves and in their origin. 

To the ignorance of the clergy, and the determination on 
the part of the Reformers, to propagate Protestantism, 
we owe the two sets of Homilies. I have had occasion 
already to notice the sadly degraded state of the new 
clergy, and the treatment which they had to endure from 
their superiors. Never were children more unceremoni- 
ously commanded. The new clergy were forced to do 
the bidding of the few in power, though by doing so they 
published their own shame, and the contempt in which 
they were held by those who knew them best. They had 
the despicable task assigned them, of accounting for one 
chapter of the Old or New Testament in the week ; and 
since even this was found to be too difficult, in 1586 a 
less i( laborious lesson" was prescribed. 1 To express their 

1 Caldwell's Coll. Doc. CI. 



110 The English Reformation. 

own thoughts was interdicted at a very early period. They 
were condemned to read what others had written, to their 
respective congregations ; they were made mere automata 
— puppets, whose gyrations were directed by Cranmer, and 
Latimer, and Becon, and Jewel, and such like adventurers. 1 
The Homilies of the Church of England consist of two 
parts. The first containing twelve discourses, was pub- 
lished in the year 1547, during the reign of Edward the 
Sixth ; whilst the latter, consisting of twenty-one sermons, 
was published in the reign of Elizabeth, in the year 1560. 
Both books, as we have seen, were approved of in the 
thirty-fifth Article, as containing a godly and wholesome 
doctrine. Of their authors little is positively known, and 
Fuller assures us, that objections were raised against them 
from this circumstance. " However some," he says, " be- 
hold these Homilies as not sufficiently legitimated by this 
Article, to be (for their doctrine) the undoubted issue of 
the Church of England, alleging them composed by pri- 
vate men of unknown parts, who may probably be pre- 
sumed at the best, but the chaplains of the Archbishops 
under whom they were made." 2 To Cranmer, however, 
the first series is generally, if not uniformly ascribed. It is 
however plain, that he did not compose all the sermons of 
the series ; for Becon was undoubtedly the writer of the 
Homily against whoredom and uncleanness? The origin 
of the second book of Homilies is still more problematical : 
but the public voice has assigned it to Jewel, It may be 
his ; still I think that this is not sufficiently established. 



1 See Burnet on the thirty-fifth Article ; as also Prettyman, pp. 535- 

2 See Fuller's Church History, Book ix, p. 75, &c. 

3 See Becon's Works, p. 643. Parker Soc. Ed. 



The English Reformation. Ill 

Of the first of these three individuals we have said enough. 
He was either uncertain about religion tothe end, or his 
life was one continuous act of hypocrisy and deceit. Such 
a man's opinions of religion are undeserving of the atten- 
tion of any one who looks for faith, and not for the aber- 
rations of a mind seeking but never finding truth. Becon 
may fairly be styled the Prince of Scurrility. Open his 
works where you will — these works are very numerous, 
forming three large and closely printed volumes — you will 
be sure to find language which reason shrinks from and 
Christianity reprobates. This man from a Catholic became 
a Protestant, under some of the phases of Protestantism, 
in the time of Henry VIII. But this Protestantism did 
not please the Pope-king ; and accordingly Becon was 
called to account for his opinions. Unwilling to receive 
so soon the crown of martyrdom, he prudently recanted 
his errors at Paul's Cross in 1542, in the following words : 
"Worshipful audience, for declaration of my sorrowful 
heart, and the testifying unto you of my unfeigned con- 
version from error to truth, I occupy this day the place of 
a penitent, praying you to give credit to that, which I 
shall now say of myself." 4 Soon afterwards he abandoned 
his faith, and retracted like the Archbishop whose chaplain 
he was, his retractation. How often he changed, or what 
was his belief during the reigns of Edward, Mary, and 
Elizabeth, it would be difficult to determine. Suffice it to 
say, that his writings, like those of Cranmer, are exceed- 
ingly discrepant ; and in consequence of this discrepancy, 
the recent editor of his works has found himself necessi- 
tated to write the following apology, if apology it can be 
called, for the variations of his author's doctrinal develop- 

4 See Pref. to Becon's Works, p. viii. 



112 The 'English Reformation. 

ments : " It must be remembered that bis early writings 
were composed in tbe earlier stages of tbe Reforma- 
tion, wben some doctrines and many ceremonies of tbe 
Romish Church, afterwards rejected, were still retained. 
Becon naturally wrote for tbe times ; be described tbe rites 
wbicb were performed before bis eyes ; be was willing to 
approve as far as be conscientiously could, tbe institutions 
tben in force. Besides, bis own views did not and could 
not at once arrive at tbe clearness and decision by wbicb 
tbey were afterwards distinguisbed. Indeed, this may he 
said of all the contemporary divines, who renounced popery 
step by step, as they became convinced of the erroneous 
character of its tenets. But in consequence, wben several 
years afterwards, Becon came to revise bis works, be found 
tbat bis doctrinal sentiments were modified, and tbat 
several of tbe rites be bad explained were used no longer. 
He did not however deem it necessary, altogether to re- 
model his treatises : he contented himself with a mere 
change of the expressions, such as ( of the Sacrament of 
the Altar,' into ( the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood ;' 
and referring to the ceremonies, as those which were used. 
It is very desirable that tbe reader of these early treatises, 
should not forget that tbey were written before the full 
development of the Reformation in England." 1 How 
pitiful all this is ! But, as St. Augustin has well observed 
(C in mala causa non possunt aliter. At malam causam 
quis coegit eos habere ? Still, such observations have their 
use. Tbey further evidence the rationalistic character of 
the Reformation, which was a purely deductive, inferential 

1 See Pref. p. xviii. The Works themselves are a proof that Becon's 
changes were more than modifications. He denounced in the most un- 
christian language whatever ran counter to his temporary convictions. 



The English Reformation. 113 

system : and a system dependant on a thousand casualties 
for success. It was man's work, and man's only; and 
hence like all the other works of man, it proceeded, as the 
editor just referred to graphically describes it, step by step. 
The omnipotent fiat was wanting ; the influx of the hea- 
venly grace, by virtue of which a man could exclaim 
" Credo" was likewise wanting ; and man found himself 
altering and altering, changing and changing, till the very 
name of religion became a mockery, and England a Babel, 
where no man understood his neighbour. Had life been 
lengthened out in the Sixteenth century as much as it was 
in the days of those who worked at the lofty tower, 
heaven only can tell, whither men with changed leaders, 
and parliaments and influences might have gone, step by 
step. Assuredly their notions would have differed mate- 
rially at the age of 600, from those which they had enter- 
tained at 60 : individuality would have been entirely 
forfeited. 

Jewel's character is like that of the two preceding Pro- 
testant worthies. A Catholic at first, and afterwards a 
violent Protestant in the reign of Edward, he hesitated 
not to subscribe " some of the Popish doctrines " in the 
early part of Mary's reign. Afterwards, he joined the 
ranks of Elizabeth, and fought her battles till death seized 
him in the year 1571. He was closely connected with the 
foreign Protestants, as is clear from the Zurich Letters ; 
and it was at Frankfort that he made in 1554, a public 
confession of his sorrow for his previous subscription to 
the tenets of Popery. 2 As a controvertist he has been 



2 See these facts recorded in Jewel's Life. Biog. Diet., vol. vii, p. 388, 
Ed. 1784, as also Penny Encyc. vol. xiii, p. 117. " Jewel," it is said, 



114 The English Reformation. 

much praised by his party. So excellent indeed were his 
works adjudged to be in the days of Elizabeth, that they 
were found worthy to be chained up in the public church, 
and associated with those of the mendacious Fox, as the 
martyrologist has been justly called. To me, however, 
his writings appear unworthy of any great leader of a 
party. Learning, honesty, and consecutiveness should 
characterize the productions of such a man : learning by 
which each point shall be clearly illustrated and proved ; 
honesty which shall serve to convince the reader that truth 
and not system, religion and not interest, are the ends in 
view ; and consecutiveness by which the discourse may be 
made a whole ; sentence following sentence, idea idea, in 
such a manner as to render the whole work in its plan and 
development apparent and clear. Such is not the de- 
scription which the impartial reader will give of Jewel's 
writings ; for neither learning, nor honesty, nor clearness 
can fairly be ascribed to them. Passages from St. Augustin 1 
and St. Jerome, 2 relative to the sufficiency of the sacred 
Scriptures, are shamefully corrupted and misrepresented ; 
words are omitted in a citation from the Third Council of 
Carthage, in regard of the books read in the Church, on 
which the entire meaning depends ; and the disgraceful 
language of Zwinkfeld relative to the Holy Scriptures, 
which Hosius denounces in his work on the Word of God, 
is ascribed to the illustrious Cardinal ! An objection urged 
by de Magistris relative to the criminality of fornication, 
is held up as the doctrine of that Divine ; and he is made 
to assert that fornication is not a crime, though the whole 

" it seems, for a short time, somewhat temporized." These expressions 
are wonderfully considerate. 

1 De Unit. Eccse. c. hi. 2 S. Jerome in c. i, Aggsei. 



The English Reformation. 115 

chapter was written to prove that it was one of a most 
deadly character. S. Leo is stated to have inhibited the ce- 
lebration of two masses on the same day in the same church, 
the text saying quite the reverse ; and St. Clement to have 
declared that a Pope could not carry the "two swords" 
whereas the saint speaks only about worldly cares. 2. In 
his pages too we find every fable faithfully recorded which 
malice or ignorance had invented against the Roman Pon- 
tiffs. Pope Joan appears before the reader as a wonderful 
reality ; on Frederick's neck, the Pontiff is seen to tread ; 
and by his orders Dandalus, the doge of Venice, is tossed 
like a chained dog beneath the pontifical table, there to 
gnaw the bones with which he might chance to be supplied. 
In a word, the figments of Bale and Barnes are adopted 
without examination by this unprincipled and overrated 
writer and bishop of Salisbury. If Swift's word can be 
relied on, Burnet had a worthy predecessor in the person 
of Jewel. 

Reckless in his statements, he fearlessly declared that 
to be a fact, of which he actually knew nothing. In his 
" Apology," 4 he states absolutely that the Greeks " have 
neither private masses, nor mangled sacraments, nor pur- 
gatories, nor pardons." This statement drew down upon 
him a severe answer from Harding in 1565. Accordingly 
we find him in the following year, thus writing from 
Salisbury, on the 10th of March, to his great authority, 
Bullinger : " I wish to know whether those Christians who 

3 The reader acquainted with the Apology of Jewel will at once know 
where the passages are to which I have alluded. I have not cited the 
words of Jewel, or of the Fathers, for fear of crowding my pages too much. 
Harding's Beply to the Apology is deserving of the reader's attention. 

4 See 14 Chap, of Apology. 



116 The English Reformation. 

are at the present time scattered throughout Greece, Asia, 
Syria, Armenia, &c, use private masses, and what kind 
of masses, private or public, are now in use among the 
Greeks at Venice." 1 Again, in proof of Jewel's being a 
hasty copier, and not a scholar, I will instance his reference 
to Camocensis, who was made to state that " it was quite a 
usual thing with the Popes to wrest the Scriptures," in his 
"Apology," 2 as also in his reply to Dr. Cole. Thus the 
word stood in four editions of Jewel's works. Now what 
did Jewel know of this author ? Nothing. In the letter 
to Bullinger just cited I find this other query. " Again a 
certain Camocensis, is sometimes quoted, as having written 
with asperity against the lives and insolence of the Popes 
Who was this Camocensis, of what order, and in what 
time and country did he live ? " 3 Thus he knew neither 
who his authority was, nor what was his profession, his 
country, or even the age in which he lived ! And yet, the 
unknown author was confidently appealed to, because he 
was supposed to be opposed to the Popes ! Indeed, Jewel 
as an authority is worthless ; and further, the antecedents 
of his life render all he says suspicious at the very least. 

What opinion the people had of the Homilies which 
were thrust upon them, may easily be gathered from 
Latimer's account of their reception. " Some," he says, 
" call them Homelies, and indeed so they may be well 
called, for they are homely handled. For though the 
priest read them never so well, yet if the parish like them 
not, there is such talking and babbling in the church that 

1 This query contains nearly all Harding's Reply. He observed that 
in all the East, there were private Masses. Hence the lengthened en- 
quiry. See Zurich Letters, vol. i, 156. 

2 Harding, 286. 3 Zurich Letters, vol. i, 156. 



The English Reformation. 117 

nothing can he heard ; and if the parish be good and the 
priest naught, he will so hack it and chop it, that it were 
as good for them to be without it, for any word that shall 
be understood. And yet (the more pity) this is suffered 
of your Grace's Bishops, in their dioceses, unpunished." 4 
Gardiner and others immediately protested against the 
new sermons ; proved them to be in direct opposition in 
one instance at least, in respect to the Solifidian system, to 
the sacred Scriptures ; and further showed how in num- 
bers of places they contradicted the Commentary of 
Erasmus, which, by being placed in the Churches and 
recommended by the State, was looked upon as sacred, as 
sacred as the Homilies with which the writings of Erasmus 
were connected. With time the dislike increased ; and 
from some cause or other, these Homilies which by Eliza- 
beth's order were at first read by all Parsons, Vicars, 
Curates, and all others having Spiritual cure, on all Sun- 
days and Holidays, in all Churches and Chapels, are now 
nearly unread and unknown. 

Quis legit hsec ? — Nemo hercule. Nemo ? 
Vel duo vel Nemo. Turpe et miserabile ! 

Montague and Burnet, and Overall, not to refer to 
other authors, do not seem to have entertained any very 
high opinion of these discourses. " They seem," says the 
first named writer, " to speak somewhat too hardly, and 
stretch some sayings beyond the use and practice of the 
Church of England, as also their dehor tations — (as the 
ancient Fathers often did) — somewhat hard upon the 

4 Latimer's Second Sermon before King Edward, vol. i, p. 121. 



118 The English Reformation. 

tenters." 1 Burnet allows that " they need a little correc- 
tion or explanation/' and further says " that the Scriptures 
are often applied in them, as they were then understood ; 
not so critically as they have been explained since that 
time : " 2 whilst Overall praises the Church for having 
i{ wisely reserved to itself the authority of correcting them 
and of setting forth others." 3 

But are these Homilies in accordance with the teachings 
of Anglicanism : do they agree even with the Sixth Article, 
though they are praised in a subsequent one, the Thirty- 
fifth ? Among the Apocryphal works of the sacred Scrip- 
tures, are reckoned the Books of Wisdom, Baruch, Tobias, 
&c. : and these are declared positively not to be Scripture 
in the Sixth Article, which the Anglican ministers sub- 
scribe. What if in the Homilies these books are distinctly 
named, or virtually acknowledged to be, sacred and in- 
spired writings ? Now this is the case. Tobias, in the 
Second Homily on Alms deeds, is distinctly stated to be 
inspired by the Holy Spirit, and to be a portion of the 
Holy Scriptures. " The same lessons doth the Holy 
Ghost also teach us in sundry places of the Scripture," 
after which words Tob. iv is immediately specified. Baruch 
is twice called a Prophet, and his book cited as a portion 
of the Scriptures, in the first Homily against rebellion. 
Again, the book of Wisdom which is referred to eleven 
times in the Homilies for Rogation week, is cited as a work 
of Solomon. 

Nor is this all. In the third Homily on Charity, Henry 

1 Appeal, c. xxiii. 2 Exposition of xxxv Article. 

3 See Nichol's Appendix. Add to these the Seven Strictures of Milton, 
" Animadversions on the Remonstrant's defence." 



The English Reformation. 119 

VIII, of whom Heylin truly says, {i he never spared ivoman 
in his lust, nor man in his anger"*- and whose character 
has been so ably delineated by Mackintosh, as the imper- 
sonation of evil, 5 is compared to the noble and pious 
princes, whose names are recorded in the sacred pages 
with praise. " God did put light in the heart of his 
faithful and true minister, of most famous memory, King 
Henry VIII, and gave him the knowledge of his word, 
and an earnest affection to see his glory, &c, as he gave 
the like spirit unto the most noble and famous, Josaphat, 
Josias, and Ezechias." Can this be the character of him, 
whose name is allowed, at all hands, to be a blot on the 
page of history? Others have thought that the light which 
dazzled the monarch, emanated, not from heaven, but 
" from Anne Boleyn's eyes," 6 and this conjecture is borne 
out by the whole tenor of Henry's life : the ray of light 
was earthly, it was meteoric ; it was not heavenly. And 
indeed, if Henry received from God the knotvledge of his 
word, then is the Anglican Church of the Homilies, whe- 
ther it be the Church of Edward, or his sister Elizabeth, 
self-condemned. For did not Edward, as well as Eliza- 
beth, repudiate the religion of their father, and each raise 
up a system of belief, wholly different from that which 
their parent had schemed ? If Henry was inspired by God, 
then is Anglicanism, which disallows the real presence, 
denounces the Mass as a blasphemous fable, repudiates 
Penance as a sacrament, a heresy ; for Henry believed in 
Christ in the Holy Mystery, and in the Mass, as a holy 
and propitiatory sacrifice, and in Penance as a sacrament 
by which sins were blotted out. If the Homilies contain 

4 Heylin, Hist of Eeform. p. 15. 5 English Hist. vol. ii. 

e Ibid. p. 151, 



120 Tlie English Reformation. 

a true and godly doctrine on this point, Anglicanism 
should cease ; if the doctrine they contain is false, then 
should the believers in the Thirty-nine Articles, the forty 
stripes less one, repudiate them : 

Utrum horam mavis accipe. 

In either case the present Church of England is proved 
to be a nullity. 

Nor do the discrepancies between the Homilies and 
belief of Protestantism end here. I will content myself 
with giving another instance of these differences, in respect 
to a matter of great importance. Whilst some Anglicans 
are holding meetings against certain practices sanctioned 
by the Bishop of Exeter, relative to confession and abso- 
lution, and agitating the country about this important 
matter, the Homily of Common Prayer and Sacraments 
maintains, that "absolution" which must, as is well known 
and felt, be preceded by confession, "hath the promise of 
the forgiveness of sins." Again, the Homilies are at vari- 
ance with one another. In the Homily just referred to, 
it is said, " As for the number of sacraments instituted by 
Christ, and expressly commanded in the New Testament, 
there be but two, namely, Baptism, and the Supper of the 
Lord"; but the Homily against swearing distinctly speaks 
of " the sacrament of Matrimony" immediately after the 
sacrament of Baptism. If men, knowing the character of 
these discourses, hesitate about subscribing them, except 
in a qualified sense, no conscientious person will be sur- 
prised. 1 

The conclusions to be drawn from these remarks are 

1 See Bennett and Burnet on the thirty-fifth Article, especially the 
former, who enters at length into this matter. 



The English Reformation. 121 

obvious. First, if the character of the compilers be con- 
sidered, the Homilies are certainly of no authority ; and 
secondly, if intrinsic evidence is to have any weight with 
the reader, in this point ' of view the Homilies are to be 
rejected as false and as contradictory; contradictory of 
one another, and contradictory of the Articles by which 
they are sanctioned. 



122 



Cjrapta % Jfiftjj. 

On the Anglican Liturgies, 



CONTENTS. 

History of the Liturgical changes. — Forms of prayer condemned, though 
previously ascribed to the Holy Ghost. — History of the Primer, &c. in 
Henry's time. — Edward's Liturgies. — Changes in them. — Authors of 
the changes. — Elizabeth's Liturgy. — Changes, and grounds of the alter- 
ations. — The Liturgy disapproved of formerly and now. — The objections 
raised against it. — Alterations suggested. — The changes in the Liturgy 
as well as in the Articles, prove the hollowness and worldliness of 
Anglicanism. — Observations on the words "our Liturgy." — Whence 
did the Anglicans derive those prayers, of which they boast so much ? 

By a natural transition, we proceed to the examination of 
the Liturgy of the new creed. Lex orandi est lex cre- 
dendi. According to this rule, we may easily infer, that 
a material alteration of prayer, involves a material altera- 
tion in belief, and that an uncertainty in the matter of 
prayer betrays an uncertainty of system. Now the Liturgy 
of the new Church, or its form of prayer, has changed, 
and materially. This has been cursorily shown already : 
it is now our duty to dwell upon this point at some length. 
Prior to the Reformation, the Mass was considered to be 
the great, the all-important liturgical act. Each day it 



The English Reformation. 123 

was offered up before crowds of worshippers ; but on the 
Sundays, the entire population deemed itself bound to 
assist at the solemn rite. And the language used during 
the Holy Sacrifice was not the vernacular of England : 
the sweet Latin language was the language of the Mass. 
This service Henry retained. He did more : he hoped 
to see all his followers retain it ; and so little did he anti- 
cipate the cessation of this rite, that, as Burnet says, he 
" left by his will, to the Church at Windsor, £ 600 a year 
for ever, for two priests to say Mass at his tomb daily." l 
Still, he commenced the work of innovation in the prayers 
of the Church, and those who came after him prosecuted 
it to the extent of excluding even the Mass from the 
Liturgy. He caused the Primer to be published in the 
vernacular tongue in 1535, and ten years afterwards a 
second Primer appeared by his authority. Edward im- 
proved on his father's example. Guided by the meteoric 
lights of Cranmer and Somerset, he wandered further 
from orthodoxy than Henry had done ; and in 1549, was 
published a Liturgy in the English language, differing 
widely from that which had been used for nearly a thou- 
sand years in this kingdom. It need not be said that 
Cranmer, who was aided by Ridley and eleven other 
bishops and divines, was the framer of this Liturgy. This 
Liturgy which was approved of by the Parliament in 1548, 
was declared to have been drawn up by the special assistance 
of the Holy Spirit, and as such was thrust upon the accept- 
ance of the nation in the following year. Still, as I have 
already noted, though much was changed, much too was 
retained which was Catholic. The Stepper of the Lord, 
commonly called the Mass, was offered up at the altar; 

1 Vol. ii, p. 13, Ed. 1683. 



1£4 The English Reformation. 

the round unleavened bread was, as formerly, made use 
of; water too was mixed with trie wine; the nearly 
tisual order of the service was retained ; the dead were 
prayed for in these Catholic words : " We commend unto 
thy mercy, O Lord, all other thy servants, which are 
departed hence from us, with the sign of faith, and now 
do rest in the sleep of peace : grant unto them, we be- 
seech thee, thy mercy, and everlasting peace. .. ."; the 
elements on the altar of bread and wine were bl^essed 
and sanc^tified, " that they may be unto us the body and 
blood of thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ"; and 
people were told to believe, that though the bread of 
consecration was divided, they did not therefore receive 
less than if they had received the whole : "And men must 
not think less to be received in part, than in the whole ; 
but in each of them the whole body of our Saviour Jesus 
Christ^ 1 The doctrine of the real presence, with its con- 
sequences, was expressed in the most distinct language. 
After the consecration, the minister humbly besought 
God, "that whosoever should be partakers of this holy 
communion, may worthily receive the most precious body 
and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, and be fulfilled with 
thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body 
with thy Son Jesus Christ, that he may dwell in them, 
and they in him." 3 When the sacrament was adminis- 
tered under the form of bread, these words were used by 
the minister : " The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto 
everlasting life." This was called the delivery of "the 
Sacrament of the body of Christ"; and when "the Sacra- 
ment of the blood" was administered, the language was 

i Liturgy of Edward VI, p. 8, 97, Parker Ed. 2 Ibid. 89, 92. 



The English Reformation. 125 

equally orthodox and emphatic : " The blood of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body 
and soul unto everlasting life." In Baptism, the exor- 
cisms were pronounced, the cross was made, and the child 
was anointed with chrism, and clothed with the white 
garment. The sick, too, if they wished it, were anointed ; 
and when the soul had left the body, the minister who 
officiated at the burial prayed thus : " Grant, unto this thy 
servant, that the sins which he committed in this world be 
not imputed unto him, but that he, escaping the gates of 
hell, and pains of eternal darkness, may ever dwell in the 
region of light with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the 
place where is no weeping, sorrow, nor heaviness," &c. 3 
But in a short while, all this was changed. The "heaven 
guided " compilers of the work, were condemned to see, 
perhaps themselves to undertake, a change in the Prayer- 
book. In 1552 another edition was published. Prayers 
for the dead, the baptismal unction, the collation of the 
white garment, as well as the exorcisms, were quietly 
suppressed; and instead of a clear declaration of belief 
in the Holy Mystery, a contrary dogma was enunciated : 
"the creatures of bread and wine" were received in re- 
membrance of Christ's passion and death ; and when the 
bread was delivered, oh how changed was the expression ! 
It was now, " Take and eat this, in remembrance that 
Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by 
faith, with thanksgiving." 4 Instead of Christ, bread was 
given ! The reality had disappeared, and men were bid 
to feast on an idea: who shall wonder if such eaters 
hungered and perished ! It was likewise stated in the 

3 Ibid. 147. 4 Ibid. 279. 



126 The English Reformation. 

rubric, that " the natural body and blood of our Saviour 
Christ are in heaven, and not here ; it being against the 
truth of Christ's natural body to be at one time in more 
places than one/' 1 and what was here said, was appended 
to the Article on the LoraVs Supper? But when Mary 
came to the throne, the acts of 1549 and of 1551 were 
repealed by the authority of the crown and Parliament. 
It was then admitted that the faith of former times was 
the true Catholic faith ; and, on bended knees, the framers 
of these varying laws asked for and obtained absolution 
from a Roman cardinal, for their former aberrations from 
orthodoxy. It had been well if the changing tide had 
here stopped; but it was not to be so. The Papally- 
denounced daughter of Boleyn, Elizabeth, claimed the 
right of establishing that form of faith and Liturgy, which 
was most agreeable to her ideas of religion, or fondness 
of innovation, when she came into possession of the crown 
of England. The act of repeal was reversed, in opposition 
to the wishes of the English prelates, all of whom, but 
one, and he was looked upon as " the calamity ©f his see," 
clung to the creed of Rome, and opposed strenuously all 
alterations in religion. This opposition it was requisite 
to stop ; and since neither entreaties nor menaces availed, 
to alter the determination of the bishops, they were de- 
prived, tossed into prison, and condemned to weep over 
the boldness of a woman and a parliament of laymen, who 
dared, in opposition to every known canon of the Church, 
to supply their places by unauthorized, perhaps unor- 
dained ministers, and to exchange the ancient Liturgy 
for another modification of the second Prayer-book of 

1 Liturgy of Edward VI, p. 283. - Ibid. 534. 



The English Reformation. 127 

Edward VI. Still Elizabeth, who seems to have been, as 
Heylin 3 observes, a zealous advocate of the real presence, 
refused to admit the last declaration of Edward, relative 
to the Holy Mystery, either into the Liturgy or the Arti- 
cles ; and further, she deemed it advisable to restore the 
rejected words, " the body of our Lord, &c. preserve thy 
body and soul," which restoration remained in force till 
1661, In this year, Charles II issued a commission to em- 
power twelve bishops, and as many Presbyterian divines, to 
consider the objections raised against the Liturgy, which 
were both many and urgent, and sanctioned by the learning 
and authority of Dr. Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich, Drs. 
Tuckney, Connant, Wallis, and Manton, besides Jackson, 
Case, Baxter 4 and others. The result was, that though 
the declaration was not restored, the words in Elizabeth's 
Liturgy, " It is here declared, that no adoration is in- 
tended, or ought to be done, unto any real and essential 
presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood " were can- 
celled, and in their place the following were substituted : 
"It is here declared, that no adoration is intended, or 
ought to be done, unto any corporal presence of Christ's 
natural flesh and blood." Several lessons and prayers 
appointed to be read, were suppressed, and others were 
substituted which were deemed more suitable ; some of 
the collects, too, were changed ; the Epistles and Gospels 
were ordered to be read from the text of James's Bible ; 
and the office of Baptism for those of riper years was like- 
wise engrafted into the Prayer-book : the Liturgy was, in a 

3 Hist, of Queen Elizabeth, p. 124. 

4 It may seem strange, but it is a fact, that to Baxter, though not a 
Protestant, the bishopric of Hereford was offered. The offer was con- 
sistently refused. — Carwithen's Hist, of Eng. p. 402. 



128 TJie English Reformation. 

word, brought to that state in which it now stands. The 
recent alterations were subscribed, as several other altera- 
tions had been subscribed by both houses of Convocation, 
on the 20th of December, 1661; and eventually they re- 
ceived the approbation of both houses of Parliament, which 
passed an act for the establishment of this corrected and 
amended edition of the Anglican Liturgy. 1 

Such are the principal changes to which the Prayer- 
book of the English Church has been subjected, during 
the brief period of its uncertain existence. Some of the 
changes are radical, affecting doctrines of vital importance : 
changes which clearly establish the falsehood of either the 
actual or the former Anglican creed. Such changes offer 
further evidence of the human origin of the Establish- 
ment ; they prove it to be a work of mere man, and not 
of man divinely assisted or guided; they further shake 
for ever all faith in the system itself, as well as in the 
framers of the system. But, on this head, further remark 
will be useless : we have, already more than once, drawn 
the reader's attention to these obvious inferences. 

It must not, however, be imagined, that though the 
Liturgy of 1661 was established both by Convocation and 
by Parliament, therefore men's minds have been satisfied. 
Complaints have from time to time rung through the 
nation relative to the state of the Liturgy. It has been 
said, and perhaps never more clearly than in these our 
days, that a change was absolutely required. Eault has 
been found by some with the Athanasian Creed; by 
others, with the form of absolution ; whilst a third party 

1 See Shepherd's critical and practical Illustration of the Morning and 
Evening Prayer of the Church of England; as also Wheatly's Illustration 
of the Book of Common Prayer ; and Pretyman's Elements, vol. ii, pp. 27-8. 



The English Reformation. 129 

has pointed with scorn to the emphatic words adopted in 
the ordination service — " receive the Holy Ghost for the 
office and work of a priest in the Church of God, now 
committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands : 
whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven ; and 
whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained " 2 — as con- 
trasted with the avowed faith of Anglicanism, and with 
its use of this apparently collated power. 3 As an instance 
of the lengths to which this feeling has been allowed to 
run, I will lay before the reader a few words of a petition 
addressed to the House of Lords, to which it was pre- 
sented on the fifth of August, 1833, by the Rev. C. K 
Wodehouse, prebendary of Norwich. The petition states 
— " that your petitioner, on reviewing in after years the en- 
gagements which he had thus entered into, became doubt- 
ful whether he could renew them if called upon to do so ; 
that further reflection only serving to add strength to 
such scruples, he feels himself bound no longer to conceal 
his opinions ; and that he now ventures to lay them before 
your lordships, in the hope of being relieved from the 
difficulty in which he is involved. That your petitioner 
begs accordingly to state, that when called upon to 
declare the Liturgy and Articles of the Church of Eng- 
land to be in every respect f agreeable to the word of 
God,' he thinks himself obliged to make such a declara- 
tion according to the plain, obvious meaning of the words 
then used by him ; and that your petitioner cannot con- 

8 The Ordering of Priests, in the Liturgy. 

3 Whilst writing this, I have fresh evidence of the denial of the power 
of absolution. McNeile and his, have heen recently gathering together 
to denounce a power, which, if words can convey a meaning, they ought 

g2 



130 The English Reformation. 

scientiously affirm the following parts of the Liturgy to be 
sanctioned by Scripture, namely, the 2nd, 28th, 29th, and 
42nd clauses of the Athanasian Creed ; the form of abso- 
lution in the office for visiting the sick ; and the words 
used at the imposition of hands in ordaining priests and 
bishops." L Notwithstanding the proposal to effect altera- 
tions on these and other points, no opposition was raised 
to the petition by either the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
or the Bishops of London, Chichester, and Hereford, who 
were present on the occasion in the upper house. By 
numbers, and among these were men of the greatest emi- 
nence, the objections were felt and admitted; it was dis- 
tinctly allowed indeed that alteration was required. But 
what induced them still to exclaim, desine quieta moveref 
Whj this : they feared lest the fabric might be pulled 
down, if touched. It seemed to them, as hazardous a 
thing to allow Wodehouse to play with alterations, as to 
permit Sampson to play before the Philistines. He played 
with pillars, and pulled a palace down; and would less 
fatal results follow from a profane removal of the pillars 
of the moral fabric ? " "Who is there (it was asked) who 
would wantonly break that mere spell of opinion, which 
now consecrates the Liturgy as an almost faultless com- 
position, to so many hearts and minds which refuse to 
perceive its little blemishes ? " The spell of opinion was 
a delusion — that was known and felt — but was it to be 
broken ! Whilst the people were taught to believe that 
the ritual was all perfect, one of the ministers of Angli- 
canism 2 was denouncing it " as spotted and wrinkled, 

1 See Petition to the House of Lords, by Wodehouse, p. 10. 

2 Riland's British Liturgy, p. 17. 



The English 'Reformation. 131 

■with such sarcasm, resentment, abuse, and assumption of 
its own excellence, as grieves and irritates its best friends ; 
while it furnishes gratuitous matter of contempt and re- 
crimination to those whom — and here duty and self- 
interest are closely combined — it ought to have pitied 
and disarmed." The " apocryphal defilements " of the 
Prayer-book, with its confused and fictitious version of the 
Psalms ; the expressions in the marriage service which 
were looked upon as quaint and unintelligible to the lower 
orders, and ivhich convey hardly any meaning according to 
modern ideas and habits "/ u the sure and certain hope " 
of the burial service; the courtly and complimentary 
terms addressed or applied to the sovereign; the state 
services, which seemed rather fitted to promote rancour 
and hatred, than <e peace and good will ; " in fine, the 
Athanasian Creed, as well as the ordination services, and 
the visitation of the sick, presented difficulties to thou- 
sands of well-minded and piously disposed individuals; 
difficulties which they were anxious to surmount by era- 
sure, and substitution of something more consonant to their 
ideas of right and orthodoxy. So opposed was Archbishop 
Sancroft, prior to his elevation to the highest Ecclesiastical 
dignity in the Anglican Establishment, to the Burial Ser- 
vice, that, as he owned to Archbishop Tillotson, " for that 
very reason he had never had a cure of souls." Mr. 
Veneer declares, that " it is plain that the office for the 
dead, was never intended to be used at the burial of men 
notorious for their vices, of such as die in a state of noto- 
rious impenitence, without any appearance of their return 
to God," and hence he advises the omission of certain 
phrases in the prescribed service. In the Commination 
Service read at the beginning of Lent— that period of the 



132 The English Reformation. 

year which is to be hallowed by abstinence and fasts, 
according both to the rubric and the ordinance of the 
Church — rubrics and ordinances which Protestant minis- 
ters have received and promised to observe, — a wish is 
expressed relative to the establishment of the ancient 
penitential courses of the Catholic Church ; but, as 
Bingham observes, though this wish has been expressed 
for some hundreds of years, " nothing is done towards 
introducing it, but rather things are gone backward, 
and there is less discipline for these last sixty years, since 
the times of the unhappy confusions, than there was be- 
fore." 1 And Bingham is but one of a mighty crowd, who 
felt ashamed of the service just named. To give copious 
extracts on this head would be superfluous. I will con- 
tent myself with adducing the words of another writer, 
and with referring the reader to others whose sentiments 
and language exactly accord with the sentiments of those 
whose words have been already cited. " That solitary 
wish for the restoration of discipline, we yearly put up at 
the beginning of Lent, has, after so many repetitions, 
no other effect than to convince the world, that order and 
discipline once dropt, it is hard to raise it up again. 
Whither has our wishing brought us ? We have wished 
the godly discipline used in the primitive Church at the 
beginning of Lent were restored. For want of something 
more than wishing, this godly discipline is sunk, and Lent 
itself gone after it." 2 The wish was obviously absurd, 
when and as it was uttered. It was felt formerly, as it is 

1 Bingham's Antiquities, b. xv, c. 9, § 8. 

2 The Hermit, Nos. 25 and 29. See too Marshal's Penit. Discip. of 
Prim. Church, p. 2, 5; White's Third Letter, p. 14; Contempt of the 
Clergy, p. 173, &c. &c. 



The English Reformation. 133 

now, that this expression of desire meant nothing; the mi- 
nisters who publicly uttered it, did not desire to see the 
discipline of former times restored. Not only did the 
Anglican ritual permit, it commanded all the members of 
the establishment to abstain and fast ; to abstain and fast 
for forty days; and yet it was well known that even the 
ministers were reading at the head of the fast, the Lenten 
service, not fasting. They had broken their fast before 
the hour of service, and ere the first day of Lent closed, 
they had partaken of meats forbidden during Lent, just 
as if no orders had been issued, and no wish had been 
expressed. Nay more, it might have been easily dis- 
covered, that so far from acting according to the wish, 
the ministers tied down to observe the ritual, looked upon 
fasting and abstinence as a characteristic of the great 
apostacy, as the doctrine of devils which St. Paul had ages 
before denounced ; 3 as an observance followed indeed by 
Catholics, but followed by them to their own condemna- 
tion ; for by their adherence to the laws of their Church, 
respecting abstinence, they were proved, it was asserted, 
to be opposed to the teaching of Christ, who had said, 
" understand you not, that everything from without, enter- 
ing into a man, cannot defile him, because it entereth not 
into his heart, but goeth into the belly." 4 Such are the 
ordinary arguments popularly advocated by Protestants 
in their sermons and books. It would obviously be more 
consistent in this class of men, either to reject the 
Prayer-book, or to denounce such modes of attacking 
Catholicity. As long as the Prayer-book command the 
following vigils, — the Vigils of the Nativity of our Lord, 
of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the 

3 1 Tim. iv, 3. * St. Mark vii, 18, 19. 



134 The English Reformation. 

Annunciation, of Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, of 
All Saints, St. John Baptist, SS. Peter, James, Bartholo- 
mew, Matthew, Simon and Jude, Andrew, Thomas, and 
Matthias, as well as all the Fridays in the year to be 
observed as days of abstinence, and the forty days of 
Lent, the Ember and Rogation days to be hallowed both 
by fasting and abstinence, — so long will honest men be 
ashamed of those Anglicans who either violate these fasts 
or days of abstinence, or turn to ridicule the Catholic for 
observing that which, by his religion, he is bid to perform. 
Suffice it to say, that this contradiction of belief and 
practice, of prayer-book and dinner -book, has long been 
censured, and has extorted from the pens of Protestant 
writers, unwilling avowals against the Liturgy which they 
had solemnly pledged themselves to receive and follow. 

Such is the history of, and such the dissatisfaction felt 
in respect to, the Liturgy. The Liturgies followed the 
Articles, or went along with them, in all their changes ; 
and hence, the inference drawn from the alterations of the 
latter, are applicable too here. All is human in the 
system. Unlike the light of God's creation, man's imita- 
tion was subjected to unruled variations, and darkness 
was the result. Each generation would be creative. It 
would not believe that the past was better than the 
present; that the previous race of men was more en- 
lightened, more sincere, more God-helped, than that 
actually existing : it rather thought that the present was 
better than the past, — more spiritualized, more assisted, 
because more experienced, and therefore it scrupled not 
to undo, or to take from, or to enlarge the works of 
those of former times. The Roman forum is a ruin, and 
Edom a wilderness; Jerusalem has fallen^ and the glory 



The English Reformation. 135 

of Greece is as a thing that was, but which is not : why 
suppose that a Liturgy is imperishable, or that that which 
was once in honor may not become despicable ? Change, 
then, change : let us build a tower, and make unto our- 
selves a great name. So, change after change took place ; 
and for more than a century, articles and rituals were the 
toys with which sovereigns loved to play, and over which 
they were proud to gain the mastery. Those in power 
seemed to say to those who were ambitious of rank and 
distinction in Church and State : fall down and adore us 
and we will give you ...... and they adored the royal 

teacher of the day, hoping for the reward. The com- 
promise was made. Faith was made the slave of interest : 
it was an item in a worldly bargain; and the world of 
soul and thought became agitated by a moral earthquake, 
more violent, more enduring and more destructive, than 
any convulsion which this material globe has ever had 
to experience. 

Before quitting the subject of the Liturgies, I would 
wish to draw the reader's attention to the following obser- 
vation. It is a common thing to hear Protestants praising 
the beauty of our Liturgy in the same unmeasured terms 
as they adopt when extolling the perfection of our cathe- 
drals. The Liturgy is said to be only inferior to the 
Sacred Scripture ; it has its faults — this is allowed — but 
these faults are as few as can be pointed out in any human 
composition. Now, I would wish it to be remembered, 
that the Liturgy is substantially of Catholic origin. From 
our Missals and Breviary has been derived whatever of 
beauty or of excellence is to be found in the composition 
of that work. To advert to the Collects, these, as Palmer 
observes, " have been read in the Liturgies of the Church 



136 The English Reformation. 

of (in ?) England from the most remote period. Not only- 
do we find them in the Liturgies of the English Church, 
before the Reformation, but in those of the Anglo-Saxon 
Church long before the Conquest. Most of these Collects 
can, in fact, be traced to the very beginning of the Anglo- 
Saxon Church ; and by that Church they were originally 
derived from the Liturgy of the Roman patriarchate in 
primitive times. "We are thus enabled to trace them back, 
in many instances, to the fifth century. So that our Col- 
lects, with some exceptions, have been used for 1400 years 
in the Church of God ; and their origin lies in the distant 
glory of primitive Christianity." l Similar observations 
might be made in reference to the Gloria, Credo, Preface, 
&c, and even to the order of the service constantly retained 
down to the unfortunate period, when the foreign re- 
formers influenced the leaders of the English Reformation, 
to substitute a second ritual in place of the first Prayer- 
book published under the auspices of Edward VI. 2 To 
Catholicity, Protestantism is indebted for the beauties of 
the English Litursw. It is as much indebted to Catho- 
licity for these, as for those gorgeous and stupendous 
fabrics, cathedrals and monastic churches, which still, 
after a^es of ruin and destruction, stud the English soil. 
To be sure, the sacrifice and the altar are banished from 
the Liturgy, as they have been from the temple; and 
many an excrescence and anomaly spoils the nearly in- 
spired composition, as does many a modem window, or 
table, or pew, spoil the gothic sublimity of the material 
structure. But these are innovations, alterations; for 
these, Catholicity is not responsible. It is responsible 

1 Palmer, Orig. Liturg., vol. ii, 39, 40. 

2 For details I refer the reader to the work just cited. 



The English Reformation. 137 

only for what is ancient, venerable, true, elevating ; for 
that, through and by which the spirits of the primitive 
and medieval saints magnified their God and Saviour : 
it has nothing to do with the novel, the uncatholic ; with 
that, in a word, which makes a man a member of an 
Anglican, whilst it tears him away from the Catholic 
Church. These few remarks, on a subject which admits 
of almost any extent of development, have been made for 
one object: to do that justice to those who have gone 
before us, which has been well expressed in one brief 
sentence — Redde cttique sutjm. 



138 



Cjmpfcr tlje *hli). 

On the Royal Supremacy. 



COXTEXTS. 

At the accession of Henry, not the King, but the Pope was head of the 
English Church. — His power considered to he divine, and as such defended 
by Henry himself. — Henry's work — The title conferred on him in conse- 
quence. — Henry abandons the Pope, and makes himself head of the 
Church. — His conduct, and that of the Clergy, during the change. — 
Awful extent of the royal assumption — Secured to him by Acts of 
Parliament, by oaths, &c. — Subserviency of the Clergy, and their 
subsequent abject condition. — More and Fisher die in defence of the 
Papal Supremacy. — Edward's claims to and exercise of the Supremacy. 
— Eemonstrance of the Clergy. — Indignation of the German and Hel- 
vetic Eeformers. — Elizabeth refuses the title of Head, but assumes 
that of Governor of the Church, with all the prerogatives of the 
Supremacy. — Remarks on the change in the title, by the Anglicans and 
others. — Opposition of the Catholic Clergy to Elizabeth's claims to the 
Supremacy. — Results. — The Supremacy ever since claimed by and 
allowed to our Sovereigns by Parliament. — Grounds raised for the 
maintenance of the Supremacy proved to be untenable. — Consequences 
to England's Christianity flowing from the assumed Supremacy. — 
Folly of the recent address made to the Queen, relative to the Indepen- 
dence of the Church in England. — The scriptural proof in favour of 
the Royal Supremacy, false as a fact, and absru'd as an argument. — 
Tso mission in the Anglican Church. — The marks of the Church have 
disappeared here ever since a King was substituted for the Pope. 

Whex the founder of the Anglican Reformation ascended 
the English throne, he found England united through 



The English Reformation. 139 

the Roman Pontiff to the rest of Christendom. Each 
prelate swore obedience to the Supreme Pontiff; the 
papal nuncio sat in the council chamber of the English 
Sovereign; and the Sovereign himself had recourse in 
the hour of difficulty to his Spiritual Superior at Rome, 
whom he honored as a Father, and from whom he sued 
for a dispensation, in case the royal wishes seemed opposed 
to the positive enactments of the Pope. Henry did more. 
He wrote a work, partly in defence of the Supremacy of 
Rome, against Luther ; and in this work he expressed his 
wonder at the audacity of the man who had dared, in 
opposition to all actual and former testimony in favour 
of the undoubted right of the Pope to rule the Catholic 
world, to deny this authority. This work he dedicated 
to His Holiness Leo X, from whom in return he received 
the distinctive title, still assumed by the Sovereigns of 
this kingdom, of Defender of the Faith ! — the faith of Rome. 
The authority too of the Pope was believed to be of divine 
right. Christ had built his Church upon one; upon 
Peter. To him he had committed the charge of the 
whole flock. He was to feed and rule the lambs and 
sheep of this flock. The Church was not to cease. It 
was built upon a rock, to last ; to continue despite of the 
winds and the storms, and the machinations of power in 
its worst and most terrific forms. It was to continue on 
the rock. Peter was to uphold for ever the divine Es- 
tablishment ; to feed the flock and to rule it for ever. He 
was never to die, as it were, for his race was ever-existing. 
His power was to endure, and his power was inalienable. 
Whoever succeeded Peter, he it was who was to support, 
and sustain the Church. On him, all who professed the 
heaven-born creed rested; by him all were supported; 



140 The English Reformation. 

•and through him this prophecy was to be fulfilled — " the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church" Such 
was the faith of England before the Reformation, down 
to the year 1534 ; such is the faith of every portion of 
Christendom at the present hour, where heresy has not 
supplanted the ancient creed, and introduced novelty for 
antiquity. The Bishops all over the world, here and 
elsewhere, believed that the plenitude of Ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction was centred in His Holiness, and was through 
him communicated to the prelates who ruled over the 
various dioceses into which the Church was divided. 
Our Archbishops and others might indeed be elected by 
the crown, but such elections conferred no Ecclesiastical 
power till Rome's acquiescence had been obtained. Then 
but then only, did they rule a portion of the Church of 
God, when the Pontiff of Rome had admitted them to the 
honors and responsibilities of the Episcopate. 1 

Disappointed in his expectations of procuring from Cle- 
ment a divorce, Henry, notwithstanding the belief of his 
fathers, and his own published professions, resolved to 
carry out the suggestion of his unprincipled favourite, 
Cromwell, namely to separate from the Holy See, and to 
make himself the centre of Anglican unity, and the source 
of all ecclesiastical as well as civil jurisdiction in this 
realm : in other words, the Monarch determined on pro- 
claiming himself the Pope, as well as the King of England. 
The clergy were amazed at the proposal ; and anxious to 
save their consciences as well as the royal favour, they 
agreed in convocation to call him the Supreme head, as 

1 I have treated this subject so fully in rny recent work, "England and 
Rome." that I shall forego the labour of entering again on this matter. I 
remit the reader to the work referred to. 



The English Reformation. 141 

far as the law of Christ permitted this : <( Et quantum 
per Christi legem licet, etiam supremum caput ipsius ma- 
jestatem recognoscimus" 2 But Henry heeded not this 
quantum, or the protestations either of the Primate War- 
ham, or of Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, against this title, 
and all statutes in derogation of the authority of the Holy 
See. He bound the clergy, " on the word of a priest/' to 
obey him in all spiritual matters ; and rather than incur 
the royal displeasure, the spiritual order basely yielded. 3 
Law after law was quickly passed, to extend the regal 
and destroy the papal power. The Archbishop was told 
by the Monarch, that, " We do recognize no superior in 
earth, but only God," and that "because ye be under us 
by God's calling and ours, the most principal minister of 
our spiritual Jurisdiction within this our realm, 4 we 
do not refuse to allow you to dissolve our marriage with 
Catherine of Arragon." The divorce, which had been 
sought in vain from Rome, was conceded by Cranmer, 
and the uxorious Monarch was, five days afterwards, de- 
clared the lawful husband of Anne Boleyn. 5 The King, 
too, was, as a last authority, to be appealed to. 6 Recourse 
was no longer to be had to the Holy See for confirmation, 
which confirmation conferred on the prelate jurisdiction, 
but to the king only ; 7 and even the archiepis copal badge, 
the pallium, was to be conferred by the authority of this 
unconsecrated King-Pope. Dispensations might be granted 
by the ecclesiastical authorities, but not without the royal 
license ; 8 and so far was the Pope's power ignored, that to 
appeal to him was made a crime, and even the very name 

2 Wilkins, iii, 742-5. 3 Wilkins, iii, 754-5. 

4 Collier, ii ; Records, No. 24. 5 Wilkins, iii, 804. 

6 25 Henry VIII, c. 19. i ibid. c. 20 

s C. 21. 



142 The English Reformation. 

of the Pontiff was carefully expunged from all books of 
divine service. Henry, as also his heirs and successors, were 
declared by the statute, 1 ff to have full power and authority, 
from time to time, to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, 
correct, restrain and amend, all such errors, heresies, 
abuses, &c, which by any manner, spiritual authority, or 
jurisdiction, ought or may be lawfully reformed, repressed, 
ordered, redressed, corrected," &c. ; it was also declared, 
that the Sovereign had " secluded out of this realm, the 
abuses of the Bishop of Rome, his authority and jurisdic- 
tion, of long time usurped" (how delighted would not 
Luther have felt, to find that the royal theologian had 
forgotten his own arguments in proof of the absurdity of 
this alleged usurpation !) ; and that, " the bishops utterly 
renounced all oaths and obedience to any foreign poten- 
tates, and all foreign jurisdictions and powers, as well of 
the Bishop of Rome, as of all other, whatsoever they be." 2 
Finally, to finish this history of usurpation, the lay ruler 
of the Church chose a layman, Cromwell, for his vicar- 
general, who took the precedence even of the Primate of 
England ; and the Sovereign was at length declared to be, 
what he had all along assumed to be, the source of all 
jurisdiction, both ecclesiastical and secular : i( Quando- 
quidem .... jurisdictio omminoda, tam ilia qua? ecclesias- 
tica dicitur, quam secularis, a regia potestate, velut a 
supremo capite. . . .primitus emanaverit." 3 It was further 
enacted, by the 35 Henry VIII, c. 1, that the following 
oath should be taken by persons at their ordinations, at 

i 26 Henry VIII, c. 1. 

2 To what an extent the clergy and the Universities carried their sub- 
serviency, may he seen in "Wilkins, iii, 769, 771, et seqq. 

3 Wilkins, iii, 797-8. 



The English Reformation. 143 

institutions to benefices, at admissions to degrees at the 
Universities, and by every person at the King's pleasure : 
" I, N.N., having now the veil of darkness of the usurped 
power, authority, and jurisdiction, of the See and Bishop 
of Rome, clearly taken away from mine eyes, do utterly 
testify and declare in my conscience, that neither the See 
nor the Bishop of Rome, nor any foreign potentate, hath, 
nor ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, or authority 
within this realm, neither by God's law, nor by any other 

just law or means I . . . . now do freely and clearly 

renounce, refuse, relinquish, and forsake that pretended 
authority, power, and jurisdiction, both of the See and 
Bishop of Rome, and of all other foreign powers .... and 
that I shall accept, repute, and take the King's majesty, 
his heirs and successors, when they, or any of them, shall 
enjoy his place, to be the only Supreme head of the Church 
of England and Ireland, in earth, under God, and in all 
other his highness' dominions. And that with my body, 
cunning, wit .... I shall observe, keep, maintain, and 
defend all the King's majesty's styles, titles, and rights, 
with the whole effects and contents of the acts provided 
for the same, and all other acts and statutes made, or to be 
made within this realm, in and for that purpose. . . ." 4 

Thus the English Church was tied to the throne : it 
depended entirely upon it. The King was its spiritual 
head, and the bishops were solely his assistants : they 
partook of a share of that power of which he enjoyed the 
plenitude. 5 

With the results of this assumption of power, all the 

4 See Lewis's notes on the nature and extent of the royal Supremacy in 
the Anglican Church, p. 31, &c. 

5 Wilkins, iii, 784. 



144 The English Reformation. 

world is acquainted. Fisher and More, and afterwards 
numbers of others, refused to concede to Henry and his 
heirs what belonged to the Roman Pontiff; and for this 
legal crime, they were condemned to pay the forfeit of 
their lives. The scaffold was stained with the blood of 
many a good and conscientious Englishman ; and England 
became a huge Haceldema, when the peaceful Pontiff was 
rejected, and the Sovereign usurped the power and pre- 
rogatives of the Bishop of Rome. 

The boy-pope, Edward VI, under such men as Cran- 
mer and Somerset, was not likely to abandon the character 
assumed by his father. In his reign, indeed, the spiritual 
power was more distinctly made to emanate from the 
crown. The King only had the inherent right to visit 
the dioceses ; to him was committed the absolute appoint- 
ment of his Vicegerents; and from him, " authority of 
jurisdiction, spiritual and temporal, was derived and 
deduced." l The result of all these enactments was, that 
the Clergy became absolutely powerless. They soon 
discovered that, not only had the Pontiff's power been 
taken away, but theirs too had been destroyed ; and to 
obviate the inconvenience to which they were subjected, 
the lower order of Clergy requested that they might be 
permitted to sit in the House of Commons when matters 
connected with religion were being discussed. But this 
request was indignantly refused. The Commons pro- 

1 1 Edward VI, c. 2. Previously indeed, this wide expression had been 
used in the Reformatio. Leg. Ecclesiast. tit. de officio et Jurisd. omnium 
Judicum. " Eex tarn in Episcopos, Clericos, etc., quam in Laicos, plenissi- 
mam jurisdictionem tarn civilem quam Ecclesiasticam exercere potest ; 
cum omnis jurisdictio et Ecclesiastica et secularis ah eo tanquam ex uno et 
eodemfonte derivaturP 



The English Reformation. 145 

ceeded in their former course, and without consulting 
the Clergy, passed their decrees relative to religion. 
(See Antiq. Britan. p. 339.) Their wings toere indeed 
clipped, as Heylin somewhere expresses it: and the 
Clergy, when it was too late, discovered that the real 
governors of the Church were the King and his Parlia- 
ment. These passed laws, and made articles of faith ; and the 
Clergy were bid to subscribe and enforce the observance 
of the new enactments. The Clergy became in fact, 
neither more nor less than royal bailiffs, or parliamentary 
officers. Calvin was indignant when he beheld the Clergy 
of England cringing and fawning at the footstool of power. 2 
Not content with calling the sycophants, inconsiderate in 
their concessions, he proceeded to use harsher language : 
he styled them blasphemers, because they had named the 
King, the Supreme Head of the Church under Christ. 
But it was when Elizabeth claimed the Supremacy, 
that the German Reformers' indignation reached its 
height. When Chemnitz heard of the astounding event 
of Elizabeth's claims to Anglican Supremacy, he in- 
dignantly exclaimed : i( Fcemineo fastu et a seculis in- 
audito. " Mary, like a virtuous Catholic, rejected the 
usurped power of Spiritual Supremacy, and restored it 
again to the Roman Pontiff: but her acts were again 
rescinded, and Elizabeth became the Spiritual Head of 
the Anglican Establishment. She refused indeed the title 
of Head of the Church; and by doing so, seems to 

2 Qui initio tantopere extulerunt Henricum Eegem Anglice certe 
fuerunt inconsiderati homines. Dedermit illi smnmam rerum omnium 
potestatem ; et hoc me semper graviter vulneravit : erant enim blasphe- 
mi, cum vocarent ipsum, suinmum caput Ecclesise sub Christo. Calvin in 
7 Amos. 

H 



146 The English Reformation. 

have afforded satisfaction to Jewel and his partizans : but 
she assumed another title equally significative, the title 
of Governor; 1 and further, she claimed all the power, 
and rights, and jurisdiction, which her father and brother 
had been possessed of, during the palmiest days of their 
Ecclesiastical ascendency. It was decreed (1 Eliz. c. 1, 
and 8 Eliz. c. 1) that " all jurisdictions, privileges, supe- 
riorities, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual 
or ecclesiastical power hath heretofore been exercised, for 
the visitation of ecclesiastical state and persons, and for 
reformation, order, and correction of the same, and of all 
manner of errors, heresies, schisms, &c, shall for ever, 
by authority of this Parliament, be united and annexed 
to the Imperial Crown of this realm, &c." And in the 
same Act, it was ordained, in reference to the extent of 
the Queen's Supremacy, that " the branches, sentences, 
and words of the said several Acts (made in the time of 
Henry VIII), and every one of them, shall be deemed 
and taken to extend to your Highness, as fully and largely 
as ever the same Acts did extend to the said late King 
Henry VIII, your Highnesses father." The Clergy, who 
knew the meaning of these statutes, and who had seen 
Henry and Edward claiming, in virtue of them, a right 
to crush the vital powers and energies of the ministers 
of religion, and to rule them more absolutely than the 
Roman Pontiff could have done by right of his Supremacy, 
would not consent to the enactments : they clung to the 

1 " The Queen is not willing to be called the Head of the Church of 
England, although this title has been offered her; but she willingly accepts 
the title of Governor, which amounts to the same thing." Zurich Letters, 
May 21, 1559, first series, p. 29; see too Jewel's Letter, May 22, 1559, 
p. 33, &c. 



The English Reformation. 147 

Pontiff as their Spiritual Head, and rejected trie Queen 
in quality of Supreme Governor of the Church in Eng- 
land. In the fourth Article of their defence of the 
ancient and divinely established form of Church Headship. 
they declared — " that to Blessed Peter, and his legitimate 
successors in the Apostolic See, as to Christ's Vicar, Was 
given the supreme power of feeding and governing the 
Church militant of Christ, and confirming his brethren." 2 
And in the fifth Article they distinctly affirmed that 
" not to laymen, but to clergymen only, was the power 
granted by God of judging and defining in matters con- 
nected with faith." 3 

Succeeding Sovereigns claimed the powers conceded to 
their predecessors. James, in the plenitude of his power, 
restored to the homicide, Archbishop Abbot, the exercise 
of his forfeited spiritual faculties. Charles the First sus- 
pended Abbot; ratified again the Articles, and attached 
to them a meaning which the House of Commons in vain 
protested against. The Second Charles allowed of devia- 
tions from the Rubric on the £oth October, 1660, and 
dispensed with the subscription to the three Articles of 
the Thirty-sixth Canon, and the oath of Canonical obe- 
dience. Even the Dutch King, William III, was a 
zealous maintainer of the rights of his Supremacy, what- 
ever his own pjersonal convictions might be in relation to 
the orthodoxy of the Establishment. He deprived several 
Bishops of their Sees, and issued injunctions to the Arch- 
bishops, which they were accordingly bound to communi- 

3 See the Articles of this most important meeting in Fuller's History, 
1. ix, p. 54. He copied them out of the Lih. Syn., 1559. 

3 On all these questions see the excellent work, A Relation of the 
English Reformation, Oxford, 1687. 



148 TJie English Reformation. 

cate to their suffragans. 1 Anne informed the Primate, 
that she was determined to maintain the Supremacy, as a 
fundamental part of the constitution of the Church of Eng- 
land. 2 And thus have our Monarchy from year to year, 
down to the present period, continued to claim and exer- 
cise the prerogatives of the Supremacy: they proclaimed 
themselves to be the Spiritual Heads of the Prelates, and 
of the Church in general, and prelates and people swore 
to defend this Supremacy. Queen Victoria, like her 
predecessors, has exercised as well as asserted the rights 
of the Supremacy. It was ordained in the Statute 6 and 
7 Vict. c. 62, that "if a Bishop become incapable of 
performing his functions, it shall be lawful for her 
Majesty, by letters patent under the great seal, to appoint 
one of the bishops of the same province. . . .to exercise 
all the functions and powers, as well with regard to the 
temporalities as spiritualities of the Bishop or Archbishop 
so found to have become incapable." And in a recent 
meeting of convocation, the following words were agreed 
upon, as an address to Her Majesty: "We not only 
recognize, but highly prize your Majesty's undoubted 
Supremacy in all causes, ecclesiastical and civil, over all 
persons, and in every part of your Majesty's dominions, 
as it was maintained in ancient times against the usurpa- 
tions of the See of Borne, and was recovered and reasserted 
at our Beformation. In connexion with this grave sub- 
ject, we feel that your Majesty may expect from us the 
expression of our solemn protest against that fresh aggres- 
sion of the Bishop of Borne, by which he has arrogated 
to himself the spiritual charge of this nation, thereby 
denying the existence of that branch of the Church Catho- 

1 Wilkins, iv, 624. 2 Ibid. 625. 



The English Reformation. 149 

lie which, was planted in Britain in the primitive ages of 
Christianity, and has been preserved by a merciful Provi- 
dence to this day, as well as against many which have 
preceded it : and we desire, on this our first occasion of 
addressing your Majesty since its occurrence, solemnly 
to protest in the face of Christendom, and to lay this our 
protest before your Most Gracious Majesty." 3 

This Supremacy was said too, to be of divine origin. 
By the 87, Henry VIII, c. 17, it was expressly declared, 
that the Spiritual Headship was given to the Monarch 
by heaven, a revelation to this effect being indeed ex- 
pressly recorded in the Holy Scriptures. u In considera- 
tion (it was said) that your Majesty is the only and un- 
doubted Supreme Head, fyc, to zvhom, by Holy Scripture, 
all power and authority is wholly given, to determine all 
manner of causes ecclesiastical, and to correct vice, fyc, 
may it therefore be enacted that all persons as well lay as 
those that are married, being doctors of the civil law, who 
shall be deputed to be any chancellor, commissary , 8fc, 
may lawfully exercise all manner of jurisdiction, com- 
monly called ecclesiastical jurisdiction, any constitution 
to the contrary notwithstanding." 

Whether or not, God and his holy word were thought 
of by Cromwell who suggested, or by Henry who adopted 
the idea of making the Sovereign of the land the Head of 
the religion of the country, I leave the reader to judge. 
This however is evident : the assumption of this authority 
enabled Henry to gratify his passions, and Henry's suc- 
cessors to wreak their vengeance on the Pontiff who dared 
to pronounce his anathemas against kings and queens, 
and on those who still clung, despite of legal enact- 
3 See the Journals of the 27th November, 1852. 



150 The English Reformation. 

ments, to the rock of their fathers, and gloried in their 
dependence on the noble line of Peter's successors. But 
the Royal Supremacy was attended with great inconve- 
niences. For 1° this doctrine tore England away from 
the rest of the world. Prior to the Reformation, the 
Church in England was a branch of the Church Catholic. 
With it, all the Churches of the world were in union. 
They all offered up the same sacrifice, received the same 
sacraments, believed the same doctrines, and acknow- 
ledged the same Head, the Pontiff of Rome. To this Pon- 
tiff, every court resorted, and none more so than that of 
England; even down to the period when Henry felt, 
or affected to feel, scruples on account of his marriage 
with his brother's widow. But, by making the Sovereign 
Head of the Church here, a new doctrine was established ; 
a doctrine which the Roman Church and the Catholic 
world repudiated, . ascribing, and rightly too, its origin 
to passion and to revenge. This new doctrine made this 
an Insular Church ; the Church not in but of England ; 
the Church not as before constituted, but as established 
by an Act of Parliament, which had no power (this is 
universally acknowledged) out of the realm of England ; 
it ceased to be a portion of the Catholic Church of which 
the successor of St. Peter was the Head. England did 
not even after that affect to be a branch of the Catholic 
Church: it was the Protestant Church: it was a whole. 
It had no connexion whatsoever even with Lutheranism 
or Calvinism, or the Greek Church: it was lopped off 
from every other Established Church. Christianity, after 
1500 years, was reduced in the Anglican hypothesis to a 
few hundred worshippers, placed in the sea girt island, 
of whom " the impersonation of evil " was the first head ! 



The English Reformation. 151 

The prayer of Christ for unity was rendered abortive, when 
the English Sovereign claimed to be the Spiritual Head of 
the Church in his kingdom. The principle advocated 
was one of disunion, of severance, of isolation : it broke 
up the Catholic Church: it made the world consist of 
as many petty and independent Churches as there were 
kingdoms, or dukedoms, or republics ; for assuredly no 
Englishman was so foolish as to say, that it was permitted 
to the English Sovereign only to rule a portion of the 
Church; that he had a privilege which was denied to 
other temporal Rulers ; and what would be usurpation on 
the part of the Pontiff here, would be the ordinance of 
heaven for France, Germany, Austria, and Bavaria, and 
for Russia, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, and Swit- 
zerland. Without an universal Head, where would be 
the Catholic Church ? If the Anglican Church was a 
branch of the Church, as some writers have maintained in 
this century, after her separation from Pome, could that 
branch be anything but a lopped-off, rotten, condemned 
branch — a branch only fit for the fire ? It was joined to 
no stock; it branched off from no trunk; it derived no 
sap, no vitality from any root : surely it was dead ! In- 
stead of speaking of the branch Church of England, the 
members of the late convocation should have explained 
their meaning. For years the explanation has been de- 
manded ; it has been demanded by the learned of Italy, 
and France and England ; the request should be attended 
to. To others the word appears absurd ; has it a meaning 
even in the minds of those who have just adopted it ? If 
it have, let the meaning be assigned. Let it be shown 
that the Anglican Church is anything better than a con- 
demned, lopped-off branch — a branch which has no fruit, 



152 The English Reformation. 

which, has no life. Let it be shown with what it is con- 
nected ; where is its root, and where the trunk with which 
it is immediately and essentially united. 

2° The Royal Supremacy is in direct opposition to the 
councils received by the English Church. The new 
Church receives the four first General Councils, namely, 
those of Nice, Constantinople, Chalcedon, and Ephesus. 
Now, it is easy to show from these, that so far from 
rejecting the Roman and believing in a kingly Spiritual 
Supremacy, the fathers of these councils plainly con- 
sidered the Roman Pontiff to be the Head of the Church, 
of the whole of Christendom. I will draw the reader's 
attention to what was respectively said by the prelates 
assembled at Chalcedon and Ephesus. 1° They declare 
that Pope Leo, "had presided over them, through his 
delegates, as a head over the members ; " that to him " the 
guardianship of the vineyard had been entrusted by the 
Lord ; " " we have confirmed (they add) the Canon pro- 
mulgated by the hundred and fifty fathers who assembled 
at Constantinople, .... that after your most blessed and 
apostolic (throne) that of Constantinople should have the 
primacy. Being persuaded that, as the apostolic ray 
shines with you, you will often extend it to this city of 
Constantinople. . . .We therefore call upon you to honor 
also with your sanction our judgment. Even as we have 
brought our harmonious agreement unto the head in (all) 
good things, so also let the head do what is befitting 
for the children. For thus also will the religious Sove- 
reigns be reverenced, who have confirmed the decision of 
your Holiness as a law ; and the throne of Constantinople 
will make you a return as it has ever fully exhibited all 
zeal towards the things disposed by you in the cause of 



The English Reformation. 153 

true religion, and has zealously united itself with you in 
oneness of sentiment." (Epist. Synod. Leoni, t. iv, Concil. 
col. 836-8, Labbei.) 

See too, how plainly the Papal legate, Phillip, speaks 
in respect to the acknowledged Supremacy of Rome, in 
the Council of Ephesus. " It is a matter of doubt to 
none, yea, rather, it is a thing known to all ages, that the 
holy and most blessed Peter, the prince and head of the 
Apostles, the pillar of the faith, the foundation of the 
Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from 
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and Redeemer of 
Mankind: and to him was given authority to bind and 
loose sins : who even till this present, and always, both 
lives and judges in his successors. Our holy and most 
blessed Pope Celestine, the bishop, the canonical successor 
and vicegerent of this Peter, has sent us as representatives 
of his person." — Concil. Eph. t. iii, act. iii, col. 625 ; Concil. 
Labbei. Previously to this declaration, which was joyfully 
listened to by the prelates, they had " united (in receiving 
the letters of the Pontiff,) their holy members, by their 
holy voices and acclamation, to that holy head (the Pope)." 
— Ibid. act. ii, col. 619. Such is the language which the 
Eastern prelates as well as the Eastern Sovereigns, adopted 
in reference to the Roman Pontiff. He is their head and 
their father, and they are his members and his children. 
The Pope is the guardian of the Lord's vineyard, not of a 
portion of it, but of the entire vineyard; and whatever 
authority, after the Holy See, Constantinople is to be 
possessed of, that authority, it is known, is to be derived 
from the Holy See ; and hence it is that the fathers 
humbly petition his Holiness to accede to their wishes, 
and confer on the second Rome, an extension of privileges 

h2 



154 TJie English Reformation. 

and jurisdiction: and to further their ends, they declare 
what zeal they have ever felt for the Holy See, and what 
anxiety they have ever exhibited to be one in sentiment 
with it. The words uttered in the Council of Ephesus 
require no comment. Similar language was formerly used, 
as I have already shewn, in a recent publication, by the 
prelates and kings of England, in their addresses to the 
Holy See. To the Roman Pontiff they were wont to 
repair for spiritual favours ; to his judgment they sub- 
mitted their decrees ; and in virtue of his decisions were 
greater as well as minor ecclesiastical affairs arranged. In 
fact, the language of England was ordinarily even more 
orthodox and more filial, when no momentary excitement 
agitated the breasts either of the sovereign or of the hier- 
archy, towards E-ome, than that of any other country : 
this I could easily prove, but I shall not do so here, since 
I have elsewhere already entered fully into this important 
and truly interesting subject. 1 Now in the face of these 
statements made by the councils which Protestantism pro- 
fesses to receive, 2 is it not folly, or something worse, to 
cast off the authority of the Pontiff, and recognize that of 
the Sovereign, in matters spiritual. 

Thirdly, if the Sovereign, as such, be the head of the 
Church, then it must be admitted either that the Church 
had no head for more than three hundred years, or that 
pagans were the heads of this divine system. The latter 
position is ridiculous ; it is ridiculous to suppose that 
Christ placed the regulation of the affairs of Christianity 
in the hands of infidel sovereigns, whose most ardent 
desire was this — to exterminate the Christian name ; and 
who, to realize their wish, waged a continuous war of 

1 See "England and Rome," passim. 3 See Burnet's Articles, p. 207. 



The English Reformation. 155 

persecution for nearly three hundred years against the 
Church, filling prison after prison with crowds of be- 
lievers, purpling the scaffold with the blood of Christians, 
and hurrying to the lions numbers for the only crime of 
abandoning paganism, and professing their adherence to 
the Messias. If the former position be maintained, if it 
be said that it was headless for three hundred years and 
more, . then I ask, on what authority is it stated that the 
Church could be in such an anomalous position ? Further, 
where is it stated that when, after three hundred years, 
an emperor should profess the faith, he was to become the 
visible spiritual head of the Church of his empire, the 
rest of the world still remaining acephalous, because still 
governed, and to be governed for ages to come, by infidels. 
These are important positions, and not to be maintained 
at random, or to be admitted without evidence. They 
are positions of vital importance, if Anglican principles 
are deserving of the slightest attention. I find in the 
sacred Scriptures of Christianity, one Peter appointed to 
feed the flock ; I find that the Church, built on this 
Peter, is perpetually to endure; I find Christ commis- 
sioning Apostles — -fishermen, not kings — to go and preach 
to all mankind, and these ordaining others to supply their 
places, in order that the ministerial line may continue 
after their demise; and I further learn, that with this 
line, Christ promises to be all the days, even to the end 
of the world ; but I do not find a king appointed to rule, 
to govern the Church; I do not find monarchs commis- 
sioned to arrange the affairs of the Church. I find 
Apostles and their successors, openly resisting the orders 
of the rulers of the day, and declaring that bishops were 
appointed by the Holy Ghost, to rule the Church ; but in 



156 The English Reformation. 

vain have I sought for any warrantee of Holy Writ, in 
favour of the supposition, that the Sovereign of England, 
man or woman it matters not, or the sovereign of any 
other land, has been appointed as such, to be the supreme 
head or the supreme governor of the Church of the living 
God. And yet, as we have seen, this authority was dis- 
tinctly maintained to be given by Holy Writ to Henry 
and his successors ! Why has not the chapter, the verse, 
the book been pointed out? Why are we condemned to search 
and search in vain for the portentous text ? Why, in a matter 
of such moment, is it not tacked to the throne, written 
upon the walls, fastened on the brow of royalty 1 There 
is no such text ; the declaration is false, as false as the 
fact which it would sustain. Had there been such a text, 
it would have been long ago paraded through the world. 

Further, in the Holy Scripture, the Church is called 
the kingdom of Christ; the flock of the Redeemer; the 
city placed on the mountain top : it is one. But the 
Anglican idea ^destroys this unity ; there must be king- 
doms, and flocks, and cities, to make it convey any 
meaning : kingdoms, having each a distinctive spiritual 
ruler ; and flocks, having each its independent shepherd ; 
and cities, wholly disconnected, separated, divided one 
from the other. In Italy, France, Austria, Portugal, and 
Spain, Catholic sovereigns shall, by the appointment of 
Heaven, rule the Church ; in Eussia, a schismatical Greek 
shall be supreme ; in Germany, and Switzerland, and 
Prussia, Lutheran and Calvinistic princes shall be sent by 
God, to maintain systems diametrically opposed to those 
upheld in England and elsewhere. Catholic princes may 
be, and by divine appointment, heads of the Church in 
other countries, but here it may not be so. Should Queen 



The English Reformation. 157 

Victoria, the head of the English Church, return to the 
faith of her fathers, she forfeits her title; her loyal and 
spiritual subjects are absolved from their allegiance, and 
the crown descends to the next Protestant heir, as if the 
Queen were naturally dead ; for so the Calvinistic Dutch- 
man, William III, King of England, and head of the 
Anglican Church, willed it ! 1 And thus God is made a 
god of inconsistencies and contradictions ; and he who 
said that he desired unity of belief, and who indeed made 
this unity essential to salvation, as well as to Christianity, 
rendered this unity impossible by forcing the people to obey 
heads, professing contradictory creeds, and promulgating 
contradictory enactments connected with the important 
affair of religion. 

If kings be, by Holy Writ, appointed to rule the 
Church, if from them, all spiritual jurisdiction flows, if 
they be the judges of heresy, how comes it to pass, that 
no king, no queen, no emperor, no empress, no head of 
a republic, ever believed in or acknowledged such a 
tenet before Henry's love for Boleyn, and the unscru- 
pulous advice of Cromwell, suggested the new idea. The 
first Christian emperor did not deem himself to have been 
made by his baptism head of the Church. Judge of this 
from his own words : " God," he says, " has constituted 
you priests, and given you power to judge us ; and there- 
fore we are rightly judged by you, but you cannot be 
judged by men." 2 

Nor did the sainted prelates of Christendom look upon 
sovereigns as their spiritual lords. " What," asks St. Atha- 
nasius, "has the emperor to do with the judgments of 

! 1 William and Mary, c. 2. 

2 Eufinus, 1. i, c. 1 ; S. Greg. 1. iv, Epist. 72 ; also Baronius, ad ann. 325. 



158 The English Reformation. 

of bishops ? Has it ever been heard of, since the be- 
ginning of the world, that the judgments of the Church 
derived their force from the emperor ? " l And when 
Osius had occasion to correct the Arian, Constantius, he 
makes use of very unmistakeable language : " Meddle not, 
O Emperor/' he exclaimed, "in ecclesiastical causes,, nor 
take upon you to command us in this kind, but rather 
learn those things from us. To you God' has committed 
the empire; to us the affairs of the Church." 2 S. Ambrose 
also knew well what was the extent of the imperial, and 
what of the episcopal power, in matters of religion. Dal- 
matius the tribune, having been sent with a public notary, 
by Yalentinian the younger, to summon S. Ambrose to 
dispute with the Arian bishop, Auxentius, received the 
following reply from the illustrious doctor of the Church : 
" I answered," says S. Ambrose, in his letter to the Em- 
peror, " in the same manner as your glorious father did 
on a like occasion, not only in words, by also by laws, 
that in causes of faith and ecclesiastical order, priests only 
are to judge priests; and further, that should a bishop be 
questioned for his conduct, this judgment should likewise 
appertain to bishops. When did you ever hear, most 
clement Emperor, that laymen judged bishops in matters 
of faith ? You are yet young in years ; you will, by 
God's grace, and the maturity of your age, be better 
informed hereafter ; and then will you be able better to 
judge what kind of bishop he is to be accounted, who 
subjects the rights of the priesthood to laymen. Your 
father, being a man of riper years, said, ( it belongs not 
to me to be a judge among bishops : ' and will your cle- 

1 Epist. ad Solitar. 

2 Epist. ad Constant, apud Baronium ad ami. 355. 



The English Reformation. 159 

mency now say, that you ought to be their judge ?" 3 But 
it is not requisite to draw the reader's attention to the 
sovereigns of other lands ; the question is, did any English 
sovereign, prior to the times of Henry, ever pretend either 
to be the head of the Church as a Church, or to be pos- 
sessed of the jurisdiction claimed by Rome, and to be the 
source, the origin of ecclesiastical authority. No : seven 
Saxon kings, and another king of Danish origin, repaired 
to Rome to receive the blessing of the Pontiff, whom they 
called father, and head of the Church ; and on him, they 
and their subjects declared themselves to be necessarily 
dependent in all Church matters. These were Ceeadwalla, 
Ine, Offa, Ccenred, Offa, Siric, Ethelwulf, and Canute. 
They, like their predecessors, sued for the Pontifical bless- 
ing, deeming it a great privilege to receive the benediction 
of the father of the faithful ; 4 and if they wished for an 
extension of the hierarchy, or for a fresh disposition in 
the ecclesiastical arrangements of the kingdom, they had 
recourse to Rome ; leaving to the Pontiff the right to 
concede or refuse their petitions. In this manner acted 
King Offa; and a similar line of conduct was pursued 
by other sovereigns who successively filled the English 
throne. Gregory, surnamed the Great, was the first who 
arranged the sees of England; "Vitalian placed all the 
Anglo-Saxon Churches under the jurisdiction of Theo- 
dore ; Agatho limited the number of bishops to one metro- 
politan and eleven suffragans ; Leo I established a second 
metropolitan at York ; Adrian, a third at Lichfield ; Leo 
III revoked the grant to Lichfield, and confirmed to the 

3 Epist. 1. v ; Epist. 32. 

4 Epist. Csenulphi, E. Leoni Papse; Wilkins, 164; see also Sax. Chron. 
86, 89, 90. 



160 The English Reformation. 

Church of Canterbury that precedence of rank and au- 
thority which it has always possessed since the eighth 
century." 1 In fact, what is the ecclesiastical history of 
our Country, save a constant succession of appeals to 
Ronie, by kings and bishops ; of confirmations of bishops 
and of supplications for the pallium ; of transmission to 
Rome of conciliary acts, and approbation of them by the 
Holy Father ; of instructions issued from the Holy See 
to the prelates and others, for the well-being of the 
Church in England ; of approval and ratification of royal 
and other charters ; of privileges granted to the kings or 
particular sees ; of gatherings of Peter-pence ; of visits 
to Rome and to other cities in order to assist at councils 
convened by order of his Holiness ; of condemnations of 
heresies ; of ecclesiastical censures extending to the whole 
country, as in the case of interdicts; or of occasional 
contests with regard to presentations, benefices, and pro- 
visors. The spirit of the Pontiff hovered over people, 
king, and priest. The idea had never been entertained of 
placing the Church under a lay sovereign, nor had kings 
assumed to be the heads of the Church, and the sources 
of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. This was a misfortune 
reserved for the sixteenth century, when priest and people 
deserved the chastisement and abandonment of heaven. 
Blot out, during any previous period, the name and deeds 
of the Pontiff of Rome, from the annals of our ecclesi- 
astical history, and you w T ill find that the page of history 
is a blank. 2 Indeed, from the fact of England's 

1 Lingard's Anglo Sax. Church, vol. i, 118. 

2 My History of " Rome and England " is one continuous proof of 
England's submission to the Holy See, from the third to the sixteenth 
century. To this work I again remit my readers. 



The English Reformation. 161 

Catholicity, may be readily inferred, what was England's 
belief in respect of the Holy See. Catholicity was based 
on the Popedom, and he was no Catholic, in the language 
of the times, who was not' governed by the Pontiff. What 
St. Jerome said of the Holy See in his days, was said by 
every person here, who professed to belong to the olden 
creed : " Following no chief but Christ, I am joined in 
communion with your Holiness, that is, with the chair 
of Peter." 3 Men may, like the members of Convocation, 
speak of the ancient British Church, whose independence 
they assume ; but the world at large, and scholars in par- 
ticular, will laugh at this way of evading a fact. If we 
know anything about a British Church, this knowledge 
is reduced to seven heads : 1° A Roman Pontiff sent mis- 
sioners hither, at the request of King Lucius, to convert 
the Britons. 2° These Britons professed the faith of Rome, 
which faith was guarded by another Pontiff, Celestine, 
when exposed to the insidious attacks of Pelagius. o° The 
doctrines and practices of the British Church were those 
which the missioners had learned in the Eternal City. 
4° This Church had been nearly exterminated by the 
perfidious conduct of the Saxon, when Augustine arrived 
on the English coast. 5° Still in doctrine it remained the 
same as before, though in some practices, owing to a want 
of communication with other Churches, and the disorders 
of the times, it differed from the universal Church. 6° 
Augustine was rejected, not on doctrinal grounds, but on 
the ground of being proud; but 7° Eventually, obedience 
was paid to the Papal representative, and Briton and 
Saxon forgot the misdeeds or injustices of their forefa- 
thers, and at last, not only professed the same creed J 

3 Epis. xr, ad Damasum Papam. Nos. 1, 2. 



162 The English Reformation. 

but laboured strenuously together to spread it everywhere. 
This we know, but no more. If the Anglican seek for 
a royal head, who ruled the British Church, he will seek 
in vain ; he will seek as uselessly for this doctrine of 
Anglicanism among the Britons, Saxons, Danes and Nor- 
mans, as for these others : that the Mass is a blasphemous 
fable; that the vows of religion and the monastic state 
are to be disallowed ; that Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are 
only apocryphal works ; and that there is no authority 
across the seas, to which recourse may be had for the 
procuration of ecclesiastical dignities. Mass was daily 
offered up ; the Catholic Scriptures were received as 
divine ; vows were taken, and the holy cowled fraternity 
was reverenced by the British Church, as is evident from 
the writings of Gildas, 72, 76, 69, 71, as well as by the 
Saxons and their followers. "Why speak of an indepen- 
dent British Church without knowing or referring to either 
its ecclesiastical form of government, its doctrines, or its 
origin ? 

I have not noticed, nor is it indeed necessary to notice, 
the examples ordinarily adduced from the Scriptures of 
the Old Law, in favour of the Anglican notion of supre- 
macy; for obviously such Scriptures neither do nor can 
establish the position, that in the Christian dispensation, 
kings are the spiritual heads of Christ's Church. The 
question is not, what arrangements did God make for 
the Church of one favoured people prior to the advent 
of his Son, but what arrangements were made for the one 
Church of all nations, after Christ had assumed our nature 
and appeared amongst us. It is to evade the question, to 
argue from one order of things to another of a higher 
character, to pass from a particular to an universal propo- 



The English Reformation. 163 

sition, to infer, that because under the Judaical dispensa- 
tion such a system was established, therefore that same 
system was to be a portion of Christianity. But in fact 
even the statement made in reference to the Old Law is 
not true : kings, as such, were not the spiritual heads of 
the Jewish Church ; the priest was the head. " It doth 
not belong to thee, Ozias, to burn incense to the Lord, 
but to the priests, that is to the sons of Aaron, who are 
consecrated for this ministry." — 2 Par. xxvi, 18. 1 

In fine, mere laics, such as our kings and queens are, 
were always considered incompetent as such to confer spi- 
ritual jurisdiction, they themselves being, by the appoint- 
ment of Christ, cut off from such a power. A great branch 
of spiritual jurisdiction consists in the power of binding 
and loosing, of forgiving and retaining sins. To the first 
ministers of religion this power was given. It was an im- 
portant power; one which the Church soon made use of, — 
a power too which, if words mean anything, is still claimed 
by the Anglican Church. If kings and queens be the 
sources of all jurisdiction, if others be merely their vicege- 
rents, and exercise their powers dependently on them, it 
will be conceded, that majesty itself holds the spiritual 
keys, and can bind and loose, forgive and retain sins. 
Now, have laymen this power ? The ministerial or spiri- 
tual power is not dependant, it should be remembered, on 
any monarch's will in the first instance : it exists by 
virtue of the will and free gift of Christ. He gave what 
he chose; and on whom he chose he conferred his favours. 
Man has no power over the divine appointments or the 

1 Should, the reader wish to see solutions to the anti-historical state- 
ments of Jewel, about the conduct of princes in former times, I would 
refer him to Harding's Confutation of Jewel's Apology, p. 303, &c. Ed. 15G5. 



164 TJie English Reformation. 

heavenly ordinances. If then we investigate the matter 
under consideration as a fact, and refer either to the pages 
of the New Testament or of history for information, what 
inference must we draw ? This : that to his ministers, and 
not to unconsecrated laymen, Christ gave this power. He 
gave it not to Pilate or Herod, or Caiphas or Caesar ; he 
left no instructions to others to confer this power on worldly 
Sovereigns; but he gave it to Peter and Andrew, and 
James and John, and the rest of the Apostolic College, 
as an enduring power, which was to be perpetuated by 
the imposition of the hands of the episcopal order. Such 
is the account of the sacred record. Nor is the history 
of the Church less explicit. Never is this power con- 
ceded to mere monarchs, but only to Peter, and the 
ministerial line. " Christ (says St. Hilary) gave forth 
a voice of power, when he says to the palsied, arise and 
walk; when he calls Lazarus from the grave; when he 
says to Peter and the other Apostles — ' Whatsoever ye 
shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in heaven.' " — 
Comment, in Matt. c. xviii, n. 7. " The exalted dignity of 
the priesthood (observes St. Ephreni) is far above our 
understanding, and the power of speech. Remission of 
sins is not given to mortals without the venerable priest- 
hood." — De Sacer. t. iii, p. 2. " He that has not the right 
to loose," says S. Ambrose, " has not the right to bind. 

To the Church both are lawful ; to heresy both are 

not lawful, for this right has been conceded to priests alone." 
— L. i, de Posnit. S. Ambrosii opp. t. ii, p. 392. 

With the emphatic words of St. Chrysostome and of the 
Apostolic Constitutions, I will conclude my observations 
on this plain point. " Tell me not," says the illustrious 



The English Reformation. 165 

prelate of Constantinople, " tell me not of the purple, of 
the diadem, and the robes of gold. Ail these are but 

shadows, and more transient than spring flowers 

Tell me not of these things ; but if thou wouldst see the 
difference between a priest and a king, examine the 
measure of power conferred on each, and thou wilt see the 
priest placed much higher than the "king. For though 
the kingly throne seems to us glorious, from the precious 
stones set in it, and the gold that circles it, yet it is the 
king's part to administer the things of this earth, and 
beyond this he has no authority whatever ; whereas the 
priestly throne is placed in heaven, and to it has been 
committed the rule over the things that are there. Who 
declares this ? Even the king of heaven himself : for 
whatsoever, says he, you shall bind on earth, shall be 
bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on 
earth, shall be loosed also in heaven." — Tom. vi, horn, v, 
in verba, " vidi Dominum." " They," he observes in 
another work, " they who rule on earth have indeed also 
power to bind, but the body only; whereas this bond 
touches the soul itself and reaches unto heaven ; and what 
the priests shall do below, the same does God ratify above." 
— Lib. iii, de Sacerd. n. 5. The statement made in the 
Apostolical Constitutions is equally clear. " Wherefore, 
O Bishop, be careful to be pure in deeds, knowing thy 
place and dignity, as bearing the type of God amongst 
men : ruling over all men, whether priests, kings, rulers, 
fathers, sons, doctors, as also over all subjects. And so sit 
in the Church, when thou announcest the word, as having 
authority to judge those who have sinned, because to you, 
Bishops, it was said : whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, 



166 The English Reformation. 

shall be bound in heaven, &c. Judge therefore, Bishop, 
with authority, as God, yet receive the penitent ; for God 
is a God of mercy." — Apostol. Constit. 1. ii, c. xi, xii. 

Another point of spiritual jurisdiction is this : " to feed 
and rule the flock/' and instruct the people in all the 
truths which Christ has been pleased to reveal to his 
Apostles. Now to whom did Christ commit this power ? 
To whom did he say feed, rule, teach ? Not, indeed, to 
an earthly sovereign were these words uttered, but to Peter 
singly, or to the Apostles collectively. To his ministers, 
and his ministers only, was the commission given. They 
were to confront tyrants, to oppose and overcome them: 
to yield to these in matters connected with the ministry 
was absolutely inhibited. So far from the sacred writings 
allowing women to teach, they bid them hold their peace ; 
and further declare that it is shameful for females to speak 
in the Church. Thus might I extend this matter inde- 
finitely, in respect to the administration of the sacraments, 
the regulation of church matters, &c. but what I have said 
must suffice. It is plain that lay sovereigns have no spiritual 
jurisdiction. Kings may govern in temporal matters, they 
may, they ought to see that the affairs of their states are 
well regulated, for the honor of religion and the good of 
society ; this is their kingdom : but to govern the kingdom 
of Christ, to rule it as a Church, this is out of their pro- 
vince, with this they have no direct concern. Christ 
regulated otherwise for his Church. Himself poor, scoffed 
at, insulted, crucified by royalty, he did not choose to make 
kings the rulers of his Church, or appoint them to regulate 
its concerns, and confer jurisdiction on others. He chose 
fishermen : and these selected and ordained and conferred 



The English Reformation. 167 

power on others whom they considered worthy of the 
ministry. 

Nor will he form a very high estimate of the origin of 
the royal supremacy, who remembers that if a vacillating 
parliament decreed at one period this important article of 
faith, it altered it at another ; as indeed it altered every 
other enactment which it had promulgated in reference to 
religion. The framers and passers of the act abandoned as 
we have already stated, not only the royal claim to supre- 
macy, but also their right to concede it ; and on bended 
knees petitioned the newly appointed Metropolitan and 
Papal Nuncio to absolve them from the crimes of which 
they had been guilty, by becoming the fautors of heresy 
and the promoters of schism. 

Henry the Eighth, then, merely usurped the spiritual 
power — a power which, as the laws of our country prove, 
had previously been claimed and exercised by the Roman 
Pontiff. He assumed this authority to the exclusion of 
the Pontiff, for an end, and that end was the divorce of 
Catherine, to be succeeded by the marriage of Boleyn, 
He was helped in his task by others as unscrupulous as 
himself; and it must have amazed the royal theologian, 
to learn from his Parliament that his was a divine autho- 
rity, that the Holy Scripture evidently pointed to him and 
his, and the heirs of the English throne, as the Spiritual 
Heads of the Church of England I But the Parliament 
meant only to compliment or please the king ; it did not 
then use measured phrases ; for it was accustomed in one ses- 
sion to ascribe to the Holy Spirit that which in another ses- 
sion it altered, modified, or altogether suppressed. In Mary's 
time, the royal prerogative was confined within orthodox 
limits, and in this the Parliament seemed cordially to 



168 T7ie English Reformation. 

acquiesce ; but in Elizabeth's reign the Supremacy was 
extended as much as it had previously been in the times of 
her father and brother ; though even then, the legislature 
gave unqualified proofs of its subserviency. Elizabeth 
could not endure, as we have already been informed by 
Jewel, the title of Head of the Church. She thought that 
it involved a prerogative which belonged exclusively to 
the Saviour; and hence it happened that not by the name 
of Head, but of Governor of the Church, she wished to 
be designated in her spiritual capacity. The vacillating 
Parliament dared not resist the royal pleasure. The 
Sovereign was no longer the Head, she was the Governor 
of the Church; and this she was by virtue of an Act of 
Parliament. Whence, the thoughtful reader will ask, 
whence did the Parliament of England derive its autho- 
rity thus to legislate ! Contrast the Pontiff's rights with 
those of the Parliament, or the truthfulness of the Church 
with the varying and discreditable statements of the 
Reformers, and say which of the two must every sensible 
man receive and reverence ? Compare the contempt 
exhibited from the very commencement of the Reforma- 
tion for all authority — for the authority of the Church 
either dispersed over the world or gathered together in 
council — with the adherence and attachment of the mem- 
bers of the olden creed to everything venerable and 
ancient, and say whether the abettors of novelty, or the 
strenuous advocates of Catholicity, are the most deserving 
of attention and respectful obedience ? Or, in fine, study 
the characters of the principal agents employed in the 
avulsion of England from Rome, and the establishment of 
a royal in lieu of a priestly domination, and ask if it be 
possible for any one to desecrate the name of religion, 



The English Reformation. 169 

by applying it to a system characterized by novelty, 
irreverence, disobedience, contempt, vacillation and moral 
degradation ? The promoters of the Reformation were, 
as Macauley observes, " a king, whose character may be 
described by saying, that he was despotism itself personi- 
fied; unprincipled ministers; a rapacious aristocracy; a 
servile parliament. The work which had been begun by 
Henry, the murderer of his wives, was continued by 
Somerset, the murderer of his brother ; and completed by 
Elizabeth, the murderer of her guest. Sprung from 
brutal passion, nurtured by selfish policy, — the Reforma- 
tion in England, displayed little of what had, in other 
countries, distinguished it — unflinching and unsparing 
devotion, boldness of speech, and singleness of eye." 1 
Whilst the Pontiff ruled, unity of faith prevailed ; or if 
ever any proud or demoralized individuals assumed the 
character of reformers, there was a standard by which their 
assertions were to be judged, and an authority whose 
decision was absolute for the confutation and removal of 
the error ; but afterwards all this was sadly altered : 
anarchy prevailed, and error of every conflicting kind 
was palmed upon the Almighty. England began to be, 
what she now is, a Babel, where no one understood his 
brother when speaking of religion. 

Shrewd, sensible men, in matters of worldly policy, are 
to be seen joining the ranks and advocating the principles 
of Hall and Southcoat, of Wesley and Swedenborgh, of 
Penn and Socinus, of Joe Smith and of every other indi- 
vidual who has dared to rise up and accuse a world, and 
call himself the heaven-sent messenger. The title-deeds 

1 See Review cf Hallam's Constitutional History. Edinburgh Review, 
No. 88. 

I 



170 The English Reformation. 

of the claimant to the throne, or dukedom, or estate, would 
be nicely and patiently scrutinized ; so keenly would every 
thing be sifted, so cautiously would pedigrees be traced, 
so accurately would every word and fact, and shadow 
of a word or fact be examined, that the rightful heir 
would be nearly sure — to the exclusion of all pretenders 
— to be reinstated in his family possessions. But, in mat- 
ters of religion, where eternal interests are at stake, little 
or no attention is paid to the evidences of religion. The 
pretender is received, and the one heir is rejected. The 
Church is treated ignominiously, and, if human efforts 
could have effected it, it would long ago have been de- 
stroyed. For example, when Henry claimed to be head, 
or Elizabeth the governor of the Church, ; when both 
stated that the Pontiff of Eome had no right to rule the 
Church here, what must have been the verdict passed 
upon the English sovereigns, had their claims been fairly 
and dispassionately weighed I "VHit, theirs had been a 
hopeless cause ; the Judge would have shewn that there 
was not a particle of evidence in favor of the new claim : 
he would, as Henry himself had done, have clearly proved 
that the Pontiff had ruled here, as well as elsewhere, from 
the earliest period of the conversion of this country, and 
that his claim was established by the word of God, as well 
as by the testification of a consentient world. 

The Sovereign of this land not having any spiritual 
jurisdiction, what becomes of the Anglican Church, which 
hangs on this very doctrine. If the Sovereign has no 
jurisdiction, by what authority do the Archbishops, 
Bishops, and other Ministers act . ? I speak not about their 
character ; I ask not about their orders ; but I ask about 
the Mission of these Superintendents of Anglicanism. I 



The English Reformation. 171 

ask who sent them, in the days of Henry and Elizabeth, 
who sends them now to preach, to administer sacraments ? 
Orders are requisite for an Episcopal Church, but Orders 
are not enough. Something beyond this is obviously 
requisite, as may be made clear to the mind of any reader. 
Put the case that Anglican bishops, or Anglican clergy- 
men left the Establishment, to join the ranks of Hall or of 
the Mormonites, would this fact, the indisputable reality of 
ordination, be a certain proof that these defaulters from 
Anglicanism had a mission to teach the doctrines of Mor- 
mon, or Hall, and jurisdiction over the newly established 
Churches or sects, or whatever else men may be pleased 
in courtesy to call these human and modern institutions ? 
Undoubtedly not, it will be answered. When ordained by 
Anglican prelates, and empowered to act by their ordainers, 
theirs was the power to administer sacraments according 
to the Liturgy of England, and theirs the mission to preach 
conformably to the doctrinal decisions contained in the 
Creeds, Articles, Homilies, and Liturgies : this power and 
mission they received, but none other. To make, if pos- 
sible, this important matter still clearer : when Christ said 
to his Apostles, " Go and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy ^Ghost," he gave them, what is called emphati- 
cally, mission; he entrusted to the Apostles the important 
task of administering sacraments, and enunciating those 
truths which he himself had uttered. This was their 
mission. What if the Apostles had corrupted the form 
and altered the matter prescribed for the administration 
of Baptism ? what if, instead of preaching Christ and his 
law, they had taught the Arian, or Eutychian, or Nes- 
torian tenets about our Lord, or with Vigilantius, and 



112 The English Reformation. 

Donatus, and Manes, had advocated a system entirely 
opposed to that which they had received ? Could the 
mission of Christ have been fairly alluded to, by the faith- 
less preachers, in justification of their perverse teachings ? 
No : they had a command from Christ to baptize and 
to preach, but to baptize and to preach essentially in 
accordance with his ordinance ; and to act in opposition 
to this, was to oppose Christ, abandon their duties, and 
repudiate all title to the character of heaven-sent mis- 
sioners. Let this reasoning be applied to the reformers. 
Those who were the first to undertake the duties of the 
ministry, had been ordained according to the Catholic 
ordinal, for the duties of the Catholic priesthood ; to offer 
up the sacrifice, to administer seven sacraments, to pray for 
the living and the dead, to invoke the saints, to uphold the 
authority and primacy of the Holy See, and teach the 
doctrines which had been defined and taught by the 
Catholic Church. For these ends they were sent forth 
as missioners ; but when they apostatized, did this mission 
last? Orders were indeed perpetuated — for the sacra- 
mental character of the priesthood is indelible — but the 
mission on which they had been sent, did that endure ? 
Obviously not : for then they were sent forth, not to 
uphold, but to oppose the Popedom, and teach according 
to the humour of the Parliament or the will of the Sove- 
reign, doctrines diametrically opposed to those in which 
the Catholic Church, the Church of their ordination, 
believed. They were even taught that the Church of 
their ordination was an apostate, an infidel Church. Whence, 
I ask, had these men, and those who succeeded them, 
their mission ? From Rome ? No : Rome's mission was 
of a directly opposite character. From the Parliament, 



The English Reformation. 173 

from the Queen, the King ? But whence had they,, only 
members by baptism of an apostate Church ! this power ? 
These sent forth the new race of teachers and ministers ; 
yes : but what right had they, and what power to give 
the commission ? Whence had they, more than the mis- 
sioiiers themselves, the right, the power to issue the 
ordinances they did ? The apostolical mission, proveable 
by the union of the ministers, in Catholic times, with 
the unceasing authority of the Holy See, — that Holy See 
through which Augustine, and Pacian, and the other 
fathers, proved their mission and their Catholicity — was 
stopped by the royal order, when that order was obeyed. 
Whence, then, did the ministers of a new creed derive 
their mission ? They received it from Henry, or Edward, 
or Elizabeth, even as Wesleyans, and Hallites, and Mor- 
monites received theirs from Wesley, and Hall, and Smith. 
These were commissioned by as good, as available, and 
as proveable an authority, to preach a different doctrine 
from Protestantism, as were the early apostates from Ca- 
tholicity to oppose the Pontiff. Apostolical mission is 
wanting, is utterly destroyed and ignored, in point of 
fact, in the Establishment. And hence, again, on this very 
account, the nullity of Anglicanism is rendered apparent; 
for the Church of Christ was ever to have a divine mission, 
a mission which, commencing with the Apostles, was to 
endure to the end of time. It does endure, plainly, mani- 
festly ; it endures in the Church of the Popedom. The 
successor of blessed Peter, through his prelates and pas- 
tors, rules the world: these have their orders and their 
mission, as well as their faith, from men commissioned and 
lawfully empowered by the Holy See, to preach, to teach, 



174 The English Reformation. 

and administer every ordinance of religion. li I am united 
to your blessedness, that is, to the See of Peter, to whom 
Christ said, 'feed my lambs,' f feed my sheep, 5 " is the 
cheering cry of every Catholic minister now, as it was 
in the days of Jerome and Augustine. But out of this 
Church there is no such mission. The Apostolical line 
has been broken elsewhere by heresy, the line of preachers 
is new ; it may ascend as high as some king-reformer, or 
some other, who notoriously rebelled against, and left the 
Church of his ordination, but there it stops; and there 
a line begins, new, and isolated, and unknown as an 
authority, to the rest of Christendom. The Church of the 
new preachers may be be a regal Establishment, it may 
have the authority of a parliament for its existence ; but 
that is its highest honor, and this is its creation. The 
Establishment being essentially English, it may be called 
the English Church: but what becomes of the Church 
of our common creed ? What is the meaning of the words 
" I believe in the holy Catholic Church" when repeated 
by an Anglican ? 

What did religion gain by the removal of a Pope, and 
the substitution of a King for the spiritual head ? Unity 
of faith ? That has disappeared. Freedom from the state ? 
She has become its slave. The power of enforcing dis- 
cipline ? That has been taken out of her hands. The 
appointment of her own ministers ? No, no : ministers of 
state appoint these. I speak of a fact; I care not how 
this fact may be explained in words ; but the state does 
appoint the episcopal order ; and though the clergy, even 
with a dean at their head, may denounce the bishop elect 
as an infidel, still the bishop elect will soon become the 



The English Reformation. 175 

consecrated prelate, and in his hands will be placed the 
reins of spiritual power, together with the riches of the 
see. 1 Has virtue been promoted ? No : even the An- 
glican bishops are forced to regret the heathenism and 
demoralization of these days. Has a knowledge of the 
Bible at least been the result ? Again I answer no. See 
the crowds who follow dissent in a thousand contradictory 
forms, and my answer is at once justified. Attend to 
the reports relative to the state of knowledge in our towns, 
and what shall you find? That there are numbers who 
know not who Christ is — many, who hardly know even if 
there be a God. And has England left herself a chance 
of becoming Catholic, and of ceasing to be an object of 
pity to the nations of the world, on account of her sepa- 
ratism ? No : the Dutchman's act justifies rebellion, in 
case an English monarch shall dare to belong to the 
Church of the Alfreds, and Edwards, and Richards, who 
formerly held the English sceptre. Since that day, 

On Christmas night no Mass is sung; 

the Mass has been proscribed. Since the Eeformation, 
no more do we hear that knell 

Which they were wont to toll 
For welfare of a parted soul ; 

for prayers for the dead, if not illegal, are not consistent 
with Protestant ideas. Anglicans will not be helped by 
the prayers of the faithful, or believe in a middle state of 

1 Let the reader bear in mind what occurred on the appointment of 
Dr. Hampden to the See of Hereford. 



176 The English Reformation. 

souls ; but, with the profane Skelton, tutor to Henry VIII, 
they say, 

" I will no priestis for nie sing — Dies irse, dies ilia," &c. 

No more 

Merry sing the monks of Ely 
When the king is passing by ; 

The monasteries, still glorious, even in their present ruined 
condition, are the receptacles of lowing cattle and birds of 
night: God's praises may no more be celebrated there. 
Angel guardians have been banished ; the " communion 
of saints" is no longer enjoyed; a table has taken the 
place of the altar ; and Christ, having left his temple, it 
seems to be under an interdict. Men no longer walk on 
a rock, — on the soliditas cathedrce Petri, but on a quick- 
sand : here to-day, there to-morrow. Poor England ! If 
some men will prefer the barley-corn to the gem; the 
teachings of Wart, Slender, Mouldy, and Shallow, to the 
teachings of the Leos, Gregories, and Piuses, who shall 
envy their choice? To us, who have the happiness of 
being Catholics, be it given to remain to the end, united 
to Peter's See, that see which made England Catholic, 
and further, which made it one, and holy, and happy. 



177 



On the Anglican Authorized Bible. 



CONTENTS. 

Heretics, both ancient and modern, adopt some distinctive version of 
the Scriptures. — Necessity of this ; and consequent recriminations. — 
Translations formerly approved of, but condemned by Henry VIII. — 
Elizabeth's Bibles denounced. — The Authorized version of 1611. — 
History of this version. — The Translators, and the rules which they 
were obliged by James to follow. — No correct Anglican Bible till 
seventy- seven years after the Eeformation. — Consequences to be drawn 
from this admission, fatal to the Eeformation. — The Authorized Version 
has been and is complained of by the learned. — Proofs. — Lowth has 
shaken to pieces the very foundations on which the translation of the 
Old Testament was based. — Obvious difficulties in connection with the 
translation of the New Testament. — Development of the principles of 
this difficulty. — Labours of Mills and others to recover the true Apos- 
tolic text. — Proofs given in detail of the ignorance and unfitness of the 
English translators. 

At all times, the various sects which have divided the 
Church have had recourse to new translations of the 
Sacred Scriptures. Marcion, as Tertullian informs us, 
rejected the version made use of by the first apologist of 
Christianity ; the Arians adopted an edition of the Scrip- 
tures which was emphatically their own ; and so it was 
with the other sects which appeared age after age. What 
then happened has particularly characterized the heresies 

i2 



118 The English Reformation. 

of the sixteenth and following centuries. Beza, and 
Castalio, and Luther and Calvin, as well as the English 
reformers, all heaven-sent, if their words are worthy of 
credit, deemed it wise, if not absolutely necessary, to 
issue fresh translations of the Sacred Scriptures, when 
engaged in the task of teaching new systems and new 
creeds. Innovations of the Bible kept pace with inno- 
vations of faith: the Bible was to be reformed when the 
Reformation was to be spread. This was obviously 
natural. As might be expected, the Bible of one party 
met with opposition from the defenders of another Bible 
and another creed. If Beza condemned the translation 
of (Ecolampadius, Castalio condemned Beza's version, 
and Molinceus condemned Castalio's. Luther censured 
Munzer, and Zwingli Luther, for having mistranslated 
the sacred text. Nor have the English translators escaped 
censure. Notwithstanding the praise originally given by 
the Anglican reformers to the translation made by Tyndal, 
it was enacted by the authority of Parliament in 1543 — 
u that all manner of books of the Old and New Testament, 
of the crafty, false, and untrue translation of Tyndal, 
be forthwith abolished, and forbidden to be used and 
kept : and also, that all other Bibles, not being of Tyndal's 
translation, in which were found any preambles or annota- 
tions, other than the quotations or summary of the chap- 
ters, should be purged of the said preambles or annotations, 
either by cutting them out, or blotting them in such wise 
that they might not be perceived or read; and finally, 
that the Bible be not read openly in any Church, but by 
leave of the King, or of the ordinary of the place; nor 
privately by any women, artificers, apprentices, journeymen, 
husbandmen, labourers, or by any of the servants of yeo- 



The English Reformation. 179 

men, or under" l Nor was the great Anglican Reformer 
even content with this. It is stated by Pretyman, that 
in the last year of his reign, Henry " issued a proclama- 
tion, prohibiting the having and reading Wycliffe's, Tyn- 
dal's, and Coverdale's translations, and forbidding the 
" use of any other not allowed by Parliament." 2 Nu- 
merous editions were issued of the Geneva and Bishop's 
Bible, during the reign of Elizabeth ; but with these the 
prelates and ministers of the times of James I, were as 
little satisfied as former ministers had been with Tyndal's, 
and Coverdale's, and Wycliffe's biblical labours. Some 
of the ministers of the diocese of Lincoln, denounced the 
translations as sometimes (( absurd and senseless, pervert- 
ing in many places the meaning of the Holy Ghost." 
And Broughton, in his advertisements relative to the 
corruptions of the Bible, tells the Bishops, that " their 
public translation of the Scriptures into English is such, 
that it perverts the text of the Old Testament, in eight 
hundred and forty places, and causes millions of millions 
to reject the New Testament, and run to eternal flames." 
The result of these and similar observations was, a new 
translation, which appeared in the year 1611, which was 
then appointed what it has ever since been considered to 
be, the Authorized Version of the English Church. The 
Eoyal Monarch himself drew up the rules according to 
which the translation was to be made, and the under- 



i St. 34 Henry VIII, 1 ; see also Pretyman, vol. ii, p. 12, Ed. 1799, 
and Burnet, vol. i, p. 321. 

2 Pretyman, vol. ii, p. 13. I suspect, however, that this writer con- 
founds the King's Speech with a Proclamation. See the Speech in Hall, 
160, and Burnet, p, 338. 



180 The English Reformation. 

taking was entrusted to forty-seven individuals of whom 
Bancroft was " the chief oversee?* and taskmaster." l 

The translators were far from being distinguished, 
as a body, by talent or erudition: assuredly they were 
little fitted to instruct a world, either in the meaning 
of the sacred word, or the real character of those 
inspired writings, which they unhesitatingly cast out 
of the Canon of the Scriptures, notwithstanding the 
opposition of nearly the whole of Christendom, and de- 
nounced as uninspired and apochryphal. They were 
men too whose religious opinions were already fixed. 
They were members of a Church which, though it dis- 
claimed, and with reason, all infallibility, bound down all 
its followers to a certain code of belief. They were be- 
lievers in the Thirty-nine Articles; and he must be 
indeed ignorant of the influence of preconceived opinions, 
who can for a moment suppose that such belief would not 
materially influence the translators in the work in which 
they were engaged, and induce them to attach a meaning 
to every doubtful text, according rather with their own 
than with the belief of a rival Church. Thus fallible 
Protestantism would direct the infallible word of God, 
and the inspired writings would be subjected to the 
influences of the framers of the Anglican profession of 
faith. Every person will at once see the extent of these 
educational or doctrinal prejudices in the version of the 
Socinian or Unitarian. Texts demonstrative of the Divinity 
of the Son are rendered absolutely nugatory; the divine 
evidence being at once obscured, or entirely annulled, by 
the change of a stop, or by references to some transcribers 

1 Pretyman, vol. ii, p. 17. 



The English Reformation. 181 

who have substituted one word for another, or added a 
single letter to the text. And were Anglicans, under the 
guidance of the wisest fool of Europe/ and the direction 
of the greatest sycophant of the age, 3 less liable to an 
internal or external bias, than the more modern sectarian ? 
We imagine not. 

From what has been said, it is obvious that there was 
not, till the year 1611, any correct or authorized copy 
of the Sacred Scriptures in the Anglican Establishment. 
If Protestants will rely on Protestant testimony, they must 
believe that the works circulated under the name of the 
word of God, were no better than corrupt translations 
of the original text, and so far from meriting approbation, 
they deserved to be condemned, and eventually suppressed. 
Neither Wycliffe's, nor Tyndal's, nor Coverdale's, nor 
Roger's, nor any other person's version sufficed ; they were 
all condemned as grossly faulty. What follows from this ? 
A truth deserving of the most attentive consideration of 
Anglicans, and the truth is this : from a corrupt source, 
Anglicans were, in the first instance, called upon to derive 
their faith. They were told to learn the faith from the 
Scriptures then circulated, and those Scriptures needed 
themselves a reformation. No one then can feel surprise 
either at the errors of the Establishment, or at the ne- 
cessity in which numbers found themselves, of reforming 
the Reformation, and thus opening wide the gates of 
dissent. 

But was this edition calculated to satisfy the wants 

2 Thus was James designated by the Due de Sully. 

3 Bancroft referring to the conduct of James at Hampton Court, said 
that " his heart melted within him to hear a king, the Wee of whom had 
not heen seen since the time of Clirist!" 



182 The English Reformation. 

of the people? No. Soon, it too was denounced; and 
year after year we find men like Archbishop Newcome, 
Symonds, Wakefield and Blackwall, suggesting important 
alterations, and publishing what to them appeared more 
correct and amended editions of the written word. " A 
new translation (says Blackwall) can give no offence to 
people of sound judgment and consideration ; because 
everybody conversant in these, and unprejudiced, must 
acknowledge that there was less occasion to change the 
old version into the present, than to change the present 
into a new one. Any scholar that compares them will 
find that the old one, though amended by this that we 
now use, in several places, is yet equal to it in very many, 
and superior in a considerable number." l Let the reader 
take up any one of the numerous private editions of the 
Sacred Scriptures, whether published by members of the 
Anglican Church, or of the Unitarian, "YVesleyan, or 
Independent sections of dissent ; let him consult any or 
all of the commentaries which have appeared, — and these 
works abound in every part of the land, — and he will find 
all agreeing in one thing : that the Anglican version 
published in 1611, and authorized by James I, is far from 
being a fair representation of the written word, though 
ignorant people are taught to believe that it is wholly 
and entirely God's word, and of such authority that from 
it may be fully and readily gathered the system of faith 
and code of morality which immediately emanated from 
the Almighty during the period of the old law, and at and 
after the establishment of the new by our divine Re- 
deemer. 

Indeed, has not the illustrious and learned Oxford 

1 Vol. ii, prsef. xxii. 



The English Reformation. 183 

professor, Lowth, shaken to pieces the biblical fabric 
which Bancroft and his collaborateurs had raised up ? 
These men, as every biblical scholar knows, closely- 
adhered to the interpretation of the Old Testament 
adopted by the Masorites. Now what is the opinion of 
Lowth, who is admittedly one of the ablest scholars Pro- 
testantism can boast of, of this system of interpretation ? 
Why, he denounces it as erroneous and deceptive. " Their 
infallible Masora (he says) boasted to have been an edifice 
raised by wise master builders on the rock of divine 
authority, proves to have been framed by unskilful hands, 
and built on sand • its foundation has been shaken, and it 
now totters to its fall." 3 

And might not the difficulty be extended ? Might not 
and will not every scholar ask, what copy of the New 
Testament was made use of by the translators. That no 
sacred writer either drew up two differently worded ac- 
counts of our Saviour's actions, or penned varying copies 
of the sacred Epistles, is universally admitted ; and yet it 
is a fact, that though there was but one original, one type, 
there are numerous copies differing considerably one from 
the other. For the sake of convenience, these variations 
have been reduced to certain classes and families; to the 



2 See Moore, vol. ii, 325. 

Johnson observes that " our English translators took the present 
Hebrew text as it is printed by the Masorites to be the only sense and 
meaning of the Old Testament." He shows how this text entirely annuls 
the famous prophecy of Daniel ix, 25, by the insertion of an athnach, or 
semicolon, after "threescore and two weeks." See too Bees' Cyclop. Art. 
Masora. Simon also, in his History of the English Version, sadly deplores 
the use of the Masora. See English Trans. 



184 The English Reformation. 

Alexandrine and Constantinopolitan, if Griesbach's divi- 
sion be adopted ; or, if the reader prefer the division of 
Hug, to the common Greek Vulgate, and to the editions 
of Hesychius, Lucian, and Origen. Now which of these 
copies represents the original? That all do not is obvious; 
but does any one fairly represent the word as it first was 
penned by the inspired writers ? If any one does, which 
is it ? And was this the copy which lay before the Eng- 
lish translators of the version authorized by the English 
Sovereign in 1611. 

The various translations of the New Testament, which 
were circulated at a very early period through the Church, 
prove that all had not the same copy. The Vetus Itala, 
differs from the Peschito and ancient Syriac versions ; and 
these again, from the translations made use of in Armenia, 
Arabia, and ^Ethiopia. What copy did each translator 
follow ; and which, I again ask, had the correct edition ? 
Since a word, a clause, an interrogation, may make a 
material alteration in the text, it is of the utmost import- 
ance to discover which copy was exactly conformable with 
the divine original. To apply these observations : are the 
first chapters of St. Matthew's gospel really a portion of 
the inspired writings ; is the account of the adulterous 
woman, which occurs in John viii, 1, 11, of the Anglican 
version, authentic; or, to give another instance, is the 
far-famed passage, relative to the three heavenly witnesses, 
which occurs in chap, v, 7, of St. John's first epistle, a 
forgery, an addition to the sacred text, or is it really the 
original declaration of the beloved disciple ? Some copies 
have appeared without these passages, whilst others con- 
tain them ; which copies are correct ? The Apostolic and 



The English Reformation. 185 

other inspired originals, have long ago perished ; in these 
instances then, of conflicting editions, what guide did 
the English translators follow ? Why were those copies 
adhered to, which contained, rather than those which 
rejected the passages already named ? The Church was 
rejected; it had failed, it was said; it had corrupted the 
revelations of the Almighty; it had failed everywhere; 
the whole world had abandoned the truth, and yielded to 
damnable idolatry; how could the evidence of such a 
world be received ? It could, in the Protestant hypothesis, 
everywhere corrupt and reject the truth ; could it not 
as easily corrupt and reject, take from and add to, the 
written word ? At all events, diversity did exist — this 
fact is patent — relative to the letter of Holy Writ ; what 
principle was adopted, or what guide was followed to fix, 
and with certainty too, upon the particular edition of the 
many in circulation, from which the English translation 
was to be derived, to represent the pure word of God ? 
Criticism, at that period, was hardly known in England ; 
manuscripts were not compared, nor were any extraor- 
dinary efforts made to obtain a certainly pure and autho- 
rized text. Translation was the task of the forty-seven, 
and not the critical examination either of ancient written 
or printed copies of the text of the New Testament. 

Thus, the text of the Old Testament, adopted by the 
forty-seven, is found to be inadmissible, if learned Pro- 
testants can be relied on ; and that of the New cannot be 
proved in such a manner, as to convince anyone, on 
Protestant grounds, that he really reads the Inspired 
Volume, when he peruses the authorized version of the 
Church of England. 

What pains have been taken since the publication of 



186 The English Reformation. 

James' Bible, to recover the original text of trie New 
Testament, is generally known. The names of Mills, and 
Bentley, and Kennicot, and Hug, and Scholz, will be 
sufficient to recal to the mind of the reader, the fatigue 
endured, and expenses incurred, in the arduous under- 
taking, by some of the greatest scholars and critics of the 
day. It was found that the wording of the sacred text 
was in a more lamentable state than the text of any pro- 
fane author. Mills reckoned his variantia by tens of 
thousands, and Bentley, notwithstanding his endeavours 
to reduce the number, was forced to allow, that in his 
edition, there would be "near six thousand variations, 
great and little, from the received Greek and Latin ex- 
amples." Bentley lived till the year 1742 ; so that if a 
correct copy of the Bible was ever in a Protestant hand, 
it was not a copy " authorized by James I." But is the 
text even now settled ? It must be fixed, before a Pro- 
testant can even fancy that he has a creed. His creed 
depends upon the text, if his rule of faith be admitted to 
be true. But he must be indeed able to hope against 
hope, who can suppose that a comparatively modern appli- 
cation of the rules of criticism to the text of the Bible, 
has already been brought to perfection ; and that our 
modern investigators have been so successful in their 
search, as to have fallen upon the most ancient and cor- 
rect [manuscripts of the sacred text at once. May not 
other Bentleys, Hugs, Scholz, and Posenmullers arise; 
and may not the world eventually possess some perse- 
vering and inventive decipherer of Biblical palimpsests, 
equal in ingenuity and zeal to the illustrious Cardinal 
Mai, who has discovered the lost works of many a Pagan, 
Jewish, and Christian writer ? 



The English Reformation. 187 

In order to shew the defectiveness of the authorized 
Anglican translation, I will draw the reader's attention to 
a few passages which have been so clearly mistranslated, 
that every scholar will at once see, that the forty-seven 
translators were ignorant of the fundamental principles of 
the Greek language. 

2 Cor. iii, 17, 6 $s Kfyiog to 'Kvevy.oi i<rnv» If there be 
six plain Greek words, these six words are they. But 
how are they translated ? " Now the Lord is that spirit." 
The pronoun is substituted ignorantly for the article, and 
this substitution renders the meaning unintelligible. " I 
am utterly at a loss," says Professor Scholefield, " to 
imagine what sense our translators meant to attach to the 
passage, in adopting the strange and inaccurate rendering, 
that spirit." He again observes, that, " so free, unhappily, 
did our translators make with the article, that they scru- 
pled not at either its insertion or omission." This obser- 
vation is most just, and it is as important as it is just : for 
by this insertion or omission the text is often materially 
affected. In illustration of this, I will adduce a passage 
from St. Peter's second Epistle, i, 1. The words, iv 
diKaiotrvvy tov bsov v]|xwv l/utl (TUT^og 'Iv\(tov X^ig-tov, are thus 
translated: "through the righteousness of God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ." This translation misrepresents 
the text ; for the Greek words clearly mean " our God 
and Saviour" and are invaluable as a proof of the divinity 
of Jesus Christ. In the Protestant translation the proof is 
destroyed ; it is impossible to convince any person from 
it, that Christ has any title to divinity. 

In the following passage of St. Matthew, xx, &3 : ova 
ecTiv 6{lqv Sovveu, # AA' olg vpoiyMGTcu V7ro tov vciTpog (xov, which 
is thus translated, "is not mine to give but it shall be 



188 The English Reformation. 

given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father," the 
professor already referred to, finds, and with reason, very 
much to blame. " By foisting in," he says, " the super- 
numerary words, we make the passage contain a doctrine 
directly contrary to other places of Scripture, e.g., John 
xvii, 2, Revelations iii, 21. Precisely the same expres- 
sion, #AA olg, occurs above in chapter xix, 2, where it 
is properly translated save. So also in 2 Corinthians, ii, 5, 
olKK mo [xepovg." It is vain to adduce the authority of the 
Vulgate for the authorized translation ; vain too to retort 
by pointing out defects in Catholic translations, whether 
authorized or unauthorized : for the Bible alone is not our 
rule of faith ; we do not believe that it is requisite to read 
or to hear the text of the written word, to learn what are 
the revelations of the Almighty. Protestants read to have 
faith ; we read already having our faith fixed and deter- 
mined. 

But there are other errors of a more serious character 
still. A modern Protestant writer has observed, that the 
words, (< search the Scriptures (St. John v, 39.)," have 
undone the world. Now is there such a command in the 
New Testament, as seems to be implied in the passage 
cited? Are the words, ipevvxTS rag ypaQocg, indicative or 
imperative ? The best Protestant scholars of more modern 
times, as Bishop Jebb, 1 Le Clerc, Lenfant, 2 Clarke, 3 Elsler, 
&c. 4 agree in maintaining that the words are indicative 
and not imperative ; and indeed, the whole context seems 
to them, as to me, to require this explanation. Our Lord 

1 Practical Theology, vol. i, pp. 287, 292. 

2 In 1. c. Vous examinez, &c. Such is his reading of the text ; of course 
he alludes to the other reading in the note. 

3 Clarke in loco. i In 1. vol. iii, p. 53. 



The English Reformation. 189 

states a fact, and the cause of the fact ; but he still de- 
mands obedience to his words; those words being a divine 
testification, such as none would be excused for rejecting, 
whatever inferences they might draw from a private pe- 
rusal of the sacred text. What inferences they did draw, 
we know. Stand they excused, for condemning Christ to 
death, in consequence of their inferences ? But excused 
they would be, if they had been thrown upon their own 
deductions by Jesus Christ, and had been referred to the 
Scriptures as the authority whence alone their knowledge 
of the Messias was to be derived. 

Passing over passages like these, which reflect little 
credit on the knowledge or criticism of the translators, I 
will now draw the reader's attention to errors of a graver 
character; errors which can only be fairly ascribed to a 
bias of the mind, resultant from the adoption of a distinc- 
tive system of religious belief; in consequence of which, 
the writers, as Dryden has well observed, " rule the Scrip- 
tures, not the Scriptures them." 

In answer to a question proposed by the Apostles 
relative to virginity, our Saviour thus replied : 'Ou Kccvrsg 
Xfinqovai tgv Aoyov tovtov, ciXK'oig lelorcii. (Matt, xix, 11.) 
These words are thus translated in the authorized version : 
" all men cannot receive this saying, &c." This corrup- 
tion is as manifest as it is shameless : the obvious and only 
meaning being : " all men do not take this word," not 
cannot take. And mark this : when in the following 
verse, the same verb %w$£itu occurs, it is translated in 
reference to the act, and not as before, in reference to the 
power : " Let him receive" the translators say, and not 
" let him he able to receive." 



190 The English Reformation. 

For a similar object — this object was to inhibit celibacy, 
and defend the marriage of all persons, even of those who 
like the first reformers had vowed a life of celibacy — the 
text of St. Paul (Hebrews xiii, 4, 5) — rifLiog 6 yci^og iv 
TcL(Ti t nut v[ uofay (kfLixvTog. . . . uCptKcc^yvpog 6 T^ovog — was thus 
corrupted : " Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed 

undefiled let your conversation be without covetous- 

ness." If Tifuog 6 yufj.og means, marriage is honorable, 
then dQihupyvpog 6 t$6%oq, likewise means, your conversa- 
tion is without covetousness. The construction is the 
same; the nature of the declaration is the same. But 
the absurdity of rendering the latter period declarative, 
was obvious : equally obvious too, to every unprejudiced 
mind, must be the folly of making the first words of 
the Apostle declarative. The sentence is, as the whole 
argument proves, simply hortatory. St. Paul wishes that 
marriage may be honorable in all things — that the bed 
may be undefiled, &c. And this idea he eloquently 
enforces. Take the words as they stand in the autho- 
rized translation, and the passage becomes an absurdity. 
If marriage be honorable in all, then it is honorable in 
near relations, in persons of ages widely and shamefully 
different, in those whom natural and positive laws pro- 
claim unfit for the marriage state ; not to refer to a variety 
of other examples equally subversive of the Protestant 
interpretation, and of the whole scope of St. Paul's doc- 
trinal statements on the point of matrimony. 1 

Again, who has not heard denunciations of the use of 
the Latin tongue in the Liturgy, on the ground of its 
being an unknown tongue, and as such condemned by 

1 See 1 Tim. v, 9, et seqq. 



The English Reformation. 191 

St. Paul in 1 Cor. xiv. In that chapter of the English 
translation, the awful words, unknown tongues, occur no 
fewer than five times ; and if Latin was indeed considered 
by the Apostle as one of the unknown tongues, and his 
address regarded prayers recited under circumstances 
similar to those which characterize the liturgical addresses 
of the Catholic Church, certainly the Protestant might 
appeal with confidence to the chapter of the English 
Bible just referred to. But unfortunately for Protes- 
tantism, St. Paul neither speaks of Latin, nor of any 
liturgical observances, nor does he once make use of the 
words unknown tongues : he refers to the gift of the 
Holy Spirit, which God was pleased to communicate to 
the faithful at the beginning of the Church, in further 
testification of the truth of Christianity, the gift of speak- 
ing a language not humanly learned, but divinely received ; 
and makes regulations in reference to this gift. But mark 
this observation : though the word yXwcG-a, tongue, is 
throughout the entire chapter unencumbered by any 
adjective, it is at one time rendered simply by the word, 
tongue, and at other times, by the words, unknown 
tongues : see verses 4, 13, 14, 19, 27. Of the folly of this 
addition in some instances, the reader will be fully con- 
vinced who attends to the reading of the 27th verse in 
the authorized version : St. Paul ordains that some one 
should interpret the unknown tongue : a difficult task, 
assuredly, for any interpreter ! 

Nor is the translation of the words, atrrs og civ eWg tov 

UfTGV TOVTQV, VJ t/vVJ TO TCOrfylOV TOV YLVflOV OLVvfyttQ, &C. (1 Cor. 

xi, 27), less culpable than the preceding instances of 
ignorance or deceit. The disjunctive v\, or, is rendered 
by the conjunctive and ; and thus a material alteration 



192 The English Reformation. 

is introduced into the text, an alteration of which the 
Protestant party has taken no little advantage. 1 This 
translation was made to buttress up the Anglican doctrine 
of communion under two kinds. The reader shall now 
see what was done by the same truthful expounders of 
the Greek text, in favour of the doctrine, not of the real 
presence, but of the real absence of the body of Jesus 
Christ in the holy mystery : and though the variation 
may at first sight appear truly small, it will be soon seen 
not to be unimportant. In the xxvi, 26, of St. Matthew, 
the xiv, 22, of St. Mark, and the xxii, 19, of St. Luke, of 
the Protestant version, occurs the small pronoun it, a word 
of obvious importance in its relation . with other words. 
From the English text it would plainly appear, that our 
Divine Saviour gave his Apostles nothing but bread at 
the Last Supper ; the it obviously connotating the bread 
which our Saviour had previously taken into his hands. 
The translation is as follows : " And as they were eating, 
Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it 
to his disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body." 

1 Such is the reading in the received, printed, and critical editions of 
the Greek Testament : the disjunctive ??, not the conjunctive /ecu, being 
uniformly approved of; and that such was the reading in the edition used 
by the translators in James' reign, is unquestionable. It is foolish then 
to state, in justification of the mistranslation, that in some MSS. and 
printed readings of this passage, kcli occurs, and not fi ; for we are not 
examining the value of this or that reading, but the value of the English 
translation. Does r\ signify or, or does it not? Is this the ordinary, 
received meaning of the word ; and have the Anglican translators else- 
where translated it as a disjunctive participle ? If the answer be in the 
affirmative, then it is clear that {] should be here translated by or, and it 
is equally clear, that it would have been thus translated, had not the 
prepossession of heresy guided Bancroft and his friends in their task of 
translation. 



The English Reformation. 193 

Now will not the honest reader be surprised to find, that 
this it is wholly redundant. The particulars of the Last 
Supper are given by three of the Evangelists, and further 
St. Paul " received of the Lord," l that which he delivered 
to the Corinthians relative to the sacred institution of the 
holy mystery. Now none of these sacred writers ever 
once insert this it : nay, more, they studiously avoid its 
insertion; leaving the decision of the nature of the gift 
to Christ's Almighty words which immediately follow the 
record of the blessing, breaking and giving. Had the 
Apostles wished to say that Christ blessed it, broke it, 
gave it, how easily and appropriately might they not have 
inserted that pronoun ; by carefully avoiding its insertion, 
they gave their readers to understand that the omission 
was intended ; that there was an object in omitting the 
word ; and what that object was is clearly developed in 
the following words of our Lord : "this is my body ! " By 
following the Apostolical example, the translators would 
have avoided an act of unwarrantable misrepresentation; 
they would have given, not a representation of their in- 
sular error, but an exposition of the divine teaching ; and 
this only does the biblical student desiderate. 

1 1 Cor. xi, 24. 



194 



<%jjter t\t (Kgjrtjr. 



On the meaning of the word, Holy Scriptures ; and on th 
inspiration, authenticity, and canonicity of the Bible. 



CONTENTS. 

Importance of this examination, and the difficulty it involves. — Meaning 
of the word Bible. — Origin, age, country, and character of the sacred 
writings. — Inspiration required. — What it is. — Protestant theories de- 
veloped. — No fixed ideas on this head, though inspiration is essential to 
the Bible. — By extrinsic proofs only can inspiration be proved — ad- 
mitted by Taylor, Hooker, &c. — Foolish proofs of inspiration adduced 
by Anglicans from Christ's words. — Authenticity. — The canonical 
writings. — The sixth Article on this bead, false. — Some works admitted 
by Protestants, were formerly doubted of as much as those writings 
which they reject. — Continuous evidence on this head. — Principles 
advocated by Cyril and others for discovering the canonicity of any 
writing. — "Whether Protestants reject or receive tradition, their posi- 
tion is untenable. — Belief of the Church at the end of the fourth cen- 
tury relative to the sacred books. — Lists of the Scriptures drawn up at 
Carthage, at Pome, and elsewhere. — Detailed and specific examination 
of each of the divine writings rejected by Protestants. — Their canonicity 
clearly established. — Falseness of the sixth Article in whatever way it be 
tested. — Protestants know absolutely nothing of the origin and mode of 
settling the canon of the Old Testament. — Varying accounts on this 
head, in respect to Esdras, the Synagogue, and the works forming the 
Bible, at various periods. — Even after Esdras, books added to the 
Canon. — Testimony of Josephus, and the principle involved in it. — 
Observations on the statement of the sixth Article in connection with 
St. Jerome.— The statement unfair, and disproved by St. Jerome him- 
self. — Catholic principle advocated by this Saint. 

We will now proceed to investigate the character and num- 
ber of the books themselves which form the canon of the 



The English Reformation. 195 

Sacred Scriptures. This is obviously a most important 
subject, far more important than that on which we have 
been previously engaged ;' for it regards the book itself, 
the letter of inspiration. If in the settlement of the books, 
Protestantism has erred; if it has rejected works which 
emanate from God ; if it has undermined the ecclesiastical 
fabric which it was endeavouring to upraise, by removing 
the foundation stone on which all depended, then indeed 
it will be admitted that the state of Anglicanism is truly 
deplorable. The sequel will shew what is the position of 
Anglicanism under all these points of view: it will be 
seen, that though "it is to the Church, authoritatively 
declaring what scripture is to be accepted, and what 
rejected, that men are indebted for the possessing of the 
written word, still, some exercising their assumed right 
of private judgment, have been disposed to pick and 
choose in regard to whole books and chapters of the 
Bible." x It will further be shewn, that Protestantism is 
wholly and entirely unable to vindicate the canon of 
Scripture which it receives : for the principle admitted in 
the sixth Article is suicidal to Protestantism, whilst the 
assertion "that those books only are to be admitted to 
be canonical of which tere was never any doubt in the 
Church," is false in itself, and destructive of that very 
canon of Scripture which Anglicanism holds out to its 
followers as certainly divine. 

To elucidate this matter, to render the biblical question 
plain and intelligible, I will treat the whole subject in 
detail. From these details alone, will the careful reader 
be able thoroughly to understand the meaning of the 

nuch abused words the Bible, the Inspired Writings, the 

Canonical Scriptures, the Apochrypha. 

1 See Digby's Compitum., vol. vi, 117. 



196 Tlie English Reformation. 

1° What is the Bible ? It is a collection of works 
written by men who were not simply assisted, but who 
were inspired by Almighty God during the composition 
of their writings. These works form two distinct volumes; 
one of which records facts, prophecies, and other circum- 
stances connected with a period anterior to the coming 
of our Divine Redeemer : whilst the other contains a 
history of our Divine Saviour, and of some of his Apostles, 
as well as sundry Epistles, written under a great variety 
of circumstances, and a remarkable prophetic writing 
regarding the fortunes of the Church in a period of severe 
trial. The former volume, or the Old Bible, contains, 
according to the decision of the Council of Trent, forty- 
five books, or thirty-nine distinct treatises, whilst the latter, 
commonly called the New Testament, consists of twenty- 
seven treatises. These writings were penned by various 
authors, of some of whom much is certainly known, 
whilst of others we know absolutely nothing : by authors 
whose education, and talents, and birth, were widely dif- 
ferent ; some like a Moses, being trained in the palaces 
of kings, whilst others like an Amos, were more used to 
hard toil and labour than to the luxury of courts. They 
were written too in countries ■ widely remote, some in 
Palestine, where magnificent scenery struck the eye at 
every turn, where plenty abounded, and where there were 
evidences of the special interposition of a divine Provi- 
dence, which must have deeply affected the minds of the 
observant and of the pious ; others in Greece, where pride, 
and luxury, and idolatry, and fondness for the wrestle 
and the race, prevailed ; and others again in Italy, where 
each spot was immortalized by the valour of the soldiers 
of imperial Rome, and adorned by some trophy of greatness, 



The English Reformation. 197 

or some proof of the refinements and arts of civilization. 
Again, they were written at periods widely apart : some 
dating from a time coeval with the Exodus ; whilst others 
regard events connected with the close of the first century 
of Christianity. The object of the Sacred writings was 
also very dissimilar: that of the oldest being to acquaint 
the Jews with the origin of the world, and its earliest 
history ; as also with the civil and religious polity of the 
Hebrew theocracy : whilst others were prophecies of woes 
or of blessings ; or songs in praise of the goodness of God ; 
or histories full of Christ's wisdom and goodness; or 
records of Apostolic zeal. These writings embody a mass 
of miscellaneous information, such as will be sought for 
elsewhere in vain, expressed in language of the most 
unequal merit, if mere composition be considered. 

These writings of such different times, and countries, 
and languages, and subjects, and literary merit, are be- 
lieved to be divine writings, God's word, inspired com- 
positions ; and on this account are preferred to all other 
compositions, and are called emphatically the boohs. Men 
penned, but God directed the writing : they toiled and 
laboured as if the works on which they were engaged 
were simply human compositions, such writings as Jose- 
phus or Philo, Hermas or Barnabas composed; but God 
was in fact their guide, their special assistant, the principle 
of light and of inspiration, though in some instances even 
the sacred authors may have been unconscious of the 
extent of the heaven-derived assistance. Inspiration, 
whatever that word may mean, is of the essence of the 
sacred books ; the writer must be inspired, if his compo- 
sitions are to be entitled, Holy Scripture. It will be 
important to discuss the meaning of the word at the begin- 



198 The English Reformation. 

ning of this chapter which is dedicated to the discovery of 
the sacred writings ; to the separation of the human from 
the divine. 

The question when simply stated, is this : what in- 
terference is required on the part of God, to secure 
to any writing the character of Sacred Scripture. As 
is plain, God may variously and in various times concur 
towards the composition of any writing, and all these 
modes have been honored by the name of Inspiration. 
Of these ways three and three only deserve our attention ; 
for about these only has there ever existed any real 
dispute among contending parties. God then may help 
the writer either by his revelations, or directing influence, 
or by way of inspiration. By revelation, I understand, 
the manifestation of something of which the writer was 
either wholly ignorant, or at all events of which he was 
unmindful at the time, when that particular truth was 
manifested by the Almighty ; whilst by direction, I mean, 
that watchful providence of God, by which the writer is 
secured against error or mistake. Inspiration, on the 
other hand, signifies an interior movement of the soul 
proceeding from God, urging on the writer to that parti- 
cular task. As is clear, inspiration and revelation may 
either precede or accompany the actual writing of a work. 
God may reveal to another his truth, before the individual 
begins to write ; or he may communicate his truths only 
during the time of writing. The same observation is 
applicable to the action of God, by way of inspiration. 
Further, it may happen, that subsequently to the com- 
pletion of any writing, God may reveal the truthfulness 
of that instrument, and thus give the sanction of his 
authority to a writing, purely human in its origin as a 



The English Reformation. 199 

Now the question originally proposed occurs : what 
kind of concurrence is required to entitle a writing to be 
called Scripture : and in what way, as a matter of fact, 
has God concurred to the writing of those volumes which 
Jews and Christians honor as the written word of God ? 
The first part of the question is clearly one of great im- 
portance. On it turns, in point of fact, the divinity of 
the sacred books; and unless this question can be dis- 
tinctly answered, only words and not ideas are attended 
to when men speak of inspired writings. 

Now, has the Protestant, as such, any fixed meaning 
when he speaks of the Sacred Scriptures ? He has not. 
The word is wholly undefined ; it varies under the ex- 
planations of nearly every writer, and it varies too in its 
application to the various books and portions of books 
which form the Canon of the Sacred Volume. " When 
it is said, that Scripture is inspired, (says Pretyman,) it 
is not to be understood that God suggested every word, 
or dictated every expression. It appears from the different 
styles in which the books are written, and from the dif- 
ferent manner in which the same events are related and 
predicted by different authors, that the sacred penmen 
were permitted to write as their several tempers, under- 
standings, and habits of life, directed ; and that the know- 
ledge communicated to them by inspiration was applied to 
the subject of their writings in the same manner as any 
knowledge acquired by ordinary means." Thus the style 
was not inspired, or even interfered with by God. Let 
us see whether inspiration affects facts, the subject matter 
of the sacred documents. "Nor is it to be supposed, 
(I still cite the above-named author,) that they were even 
thus inspired in every fact which they related, or in every 



200 TJie English Reformation. 

precept which they delivered. They were left to the 
common use of their faculties, and did not upon every 
occasion stand in need of supernatural communication; 
but whenever, and as far as divine assistance was neces- 
sary, it was always afforded. In different parts of Scrip- 
ture, we perceive that there were different sorts and 
degrees of inspiration. God enabled Moses to give an 
account of the creation of the world; he enabled Josue 
to record with exactness the settlement of the Israelites in 
the land of Canaan; he enabled David to mingle pro- 
phetic information with the various effusions of gratitude, 
contrition and piety ; he enabled Solomon to deliver wise 
instructions for the regulation of human life ; he enabled 
Isaiah to deliver predictions concerning the future Saviour 
of mankind, and Ezra to collect the Sacred Scriptures 
into one authentic volume." Thus the inspiration is 
widely different as to facts : some requiring at one period 
or other, a direct revelation; whilst others only needed either 
a heavenly impulse, or a divine guidance, or the superin- 
tendence and protection of God. This only follows, I 
say, at the most, from the writing cited. To me it appears 
clear that the author has supposed much which required 
proof. He argues from the necessity of a revelation at 
some period, and to some person, to the communication of 
that revelation during the period of writing, to the indi- 
vidual writing, which is at least a gratuitous supposition. 
A revelation made in any way, may be written by any- 
body. The revelation is heavenly, but is the writing 
necessarily so ? To prophesy requires the secret inspira- 
tion and direct communication of heaven ; but does he 
who pens the prophecy absolutely require this assistance ? 
Is it fair to say, that, because a volume contains myste- 



The English Reformation. 201 

ries impervious to human reason, and above man's con- 
ception, records prophecies which regard periods and 
individuals yet unseen, and refers to positive commands 
which God has promulgated, it is therefore an inspired 
writing ? Assuredly not : else every catechism, every 
spiritual work, and exposition of the faith and practices 
of Christianity, would be an inspired production. The 
knowledge of revelation is widely different from revelation 
itself. Whilst the latter is from God, the former may be 
the result of attention and memory. A Jew or Gentile, 
who heard Christ speaking of his Church, and announcing 
the saving truths of Christianity, may have written down 
every word, have written it as faithfully as even the 
Apostles themselves. To do this, memory sufficed. The 
same may be said relative to those who heard the Apostles. 
Their hearers may have understood and remembered 
every syllable which was uttered; this too they might 
have penned; and yet in neither case, would the writings 
of such persons have been inspired. Those writings would 
contain indeed revelations ; but still the composition would 
be essentially man's, and not God's work. In a word, 
prophecies or mysteries when committed to writing, do 
not by any means involve the supposition of their being 
then primarily communicated when committed to paper. 
All that they suppose is this, that they have been revealed : 
the time, the hoio, the person, being in no wise involved 
in the enunciation of the revelation. Hence those argue 
illogically who infer the inspiration of the writer from the 
inspiration of facts, and conclude that the writer must 
have been inspired, because he communicated the truths 
of inspiration. 

To those unacquainted with modern writings, and in- 

K 2 



202 The English Reformation. 

deed, with older compositions of distinguished scholars, 1 
these observations may appear superfluous, but by the 
scholar they will be adjudged necessary; for numerous 
writers have fallen into this error, and have argued on 
this point in a manner unworthy of the reputation which 
they had otherwise so well merited. 

To proceed : the extent of inspiration is again a matter 
deserving of consideration. "That the authors of these 
books (the books of the Old Testament,) were occasionally 
inspired," observes Pretyman, "is certain, since they fre- 
quently display an acquaintance with the counsels and 
designs of God, and often reveal his future dispensations in 
the clearest predictions. But though it is evident that the 
sacred historians sometimes wrote under the immediate 
operation of the Holy Spirit, it does not follow that they 
derived from revelation the knowledge of those things, 
which might be collected from the common sources of human 
intelligence." Obviously, it appears to be conceded, that 
though portions of the Scriptures are inspired, this in- 
spiration is not so essential that nothing can be called 
scripture which is not inspired: and this is afterwards 
distinctly conceded. "If it be asked," it is said, "by 
what rule we are to distinguish the inspired from the 
uninspired parts of these books, I answer, that no general 
rule can be prescribed for that purpose. Nor is it neces- 
sary that we should be able to make any such discrimi- 
nation." 

Even supernatural assistance is not deemed requisite, 

1 See Calmet's Dissertation on the Inspiration of the Sacred Scripture, 
vol. i, p. 58 ; as also Sardagna, vol. ii, p. 100, in proof of my positions. 
Protestants, as a body, formerly and now, argue in the inconclusive 
manner referred to in the text. 



The English Reformation. 203 

in the composition of some parts of the sacred volumes. 
"We may, in like manner, suppose," the same writer 
continues, " that some of the precepts delivered in the 
books called Hagiographa, were written without any 
supernatural assistance, though it is evident that others 
of them exceed the limits of human wisdom ; and it would 
be equally impossible, as in the historical scriptures, to 
ascertain the character of particular passages which might 
be proposed. But here again, a discrimination would 
be entirely useless. The books themselves furnish suffi- 
cient proofs that the writers of them were occasionally 
inspired, and we know also that they were frequently 
quoted, particularly the Psalms, as prophetical, by our 
Saviour and his Apostles, in support of the religion which 
they preached. Hence we are under an indispensable 
obligation to admit the divine authority of the whole of 
these books, which have the same claim to our faith and 
obedience, as if they had been written under the influence 
of a constant and universal inspiration." 2 

Nor is the Bishop of Lincoln singular, in his account 
of the nature and extent of inspiration. In a long, and 
generally able article on Revelation, in vol. xix of the 
Penny Encyclopcedia, the reader will peruse the " various 
theories which have been put forth," on the question of 
scriptural inspiration, which have been advocated by per- 
sons of eminence ; to wit, the theory of verbal inspiration, 
the theory of plenary inspiration, in respect to every fact, 
whether historical, moral, or doctrinal; and the theory 
of partial inspiration, and partial liability to err, which 
is thus described : " Lastly, there are many, and amongst 
them divines of great eminence, and reputed orthodoxy, 

2 See Pretyman's Christian Theology, vol. i, p. 21, 28. 



204 The English Reformation. 

and not a few distinguished prelates of the English Church, 
who limit the extent of inspiration as commonly received, 
and suppose that parts of Scripture may have been written 
with the liability to error incident to ordinary histories; 
those, for instance, which are purely historical, and con- 
tain no religious truth." 

It would seem, indeed, that all idea of inspiration, as 
essential to the nature of a sacred volume, has been 
overlooked by some Anglican ministers. For example, 
Eellowes, in the very first page of his Concordance of 
the Evangelists, 1 thus writes : " St. Luke's preface is a 
very important part of the evangelical records ; for it 
fully proves that he had compiled his history from the 
best materials which he could procure, that he had spared 
no pains in collecting information, that he had scrupu- 
lously traced the authenticity of every fact which he had 
recorded, and that the work which he had addressed to 
Theophilus, was not the product of miraculous inspiration, 
but of industrious research." 

In Germany, and indeed in England too, several eminent 
biblical students have hardly allowed the notion of in- 
spiration ; they look upon the bulk of the sacred writers 
as mere epitomizers and copyists, and nothing more. 
Storr 2 refers SS. Matthew and Luke to S. Mark; Biis- 
ching, 3 on the other hand, maintains that S. Matthew and 
S. Mark have copied from S. Luke ; Grotius, 4 Townson, 
Wetstein, 5 and Mill, 6 say that S. Mark borrowed from 
S. Matthew, and S. Luke from both; whilst Vogel 7 is of 

1 Guide to Immortality, vol. i, p. 1, note. 2 Comment. Theol. vol. iii. 
3 Harmonie der Evangelien. 4 In Matt, et Luc. c. i, 1. 

5 Praef. in Marc et Luc. * Prol. § 109, 116. 

7 See Galbler's Journal, vol. i, 159. 



The English Reformation. 205 

opinion that S. Mark copied S. Luke, and S. Matthew 
availed himself of the labours of both; and Griesbach 8 
and Amnion 9 believe that S. Mark derived much infor- 
mation from S. Matthew and S. Luke. Nor did even 
this satisfy the learning or the ignorance of the foreign 
divines. Eichorn, and his follower , Bishop Marsh, advo- 
cate the existence of a document, of the origin of which 
they know and decide nothing, and they suppose that this 
was the basis of all the Gospels afterwards published. 
The original was defective; it omitted some facts, was 
incorrect in others, and viewed chronologically, was worse 
than worthless. These defects, subsequent writers of holy 
writ corrected; but beyond the task of correcting, they 
are supposed to have done little or nothing. 10 

Such are a few out of a multitude of opinions, advocated 
by English and foreign divines, relative to the nature of 
the inspiration of the sacred volumes. Erom them the 
reader will have inferred : 1° That the word, inspiration, 
is indeed an ill-defined expression. 2° That it is plain 
that few or none distinctly know, what is essential to the 
constitution of a divine writing. And 3° That the various 
books of holy Scripture, cannot be supposed to bear very 
distinct evidence of their inspiration, seeing that so many 
contradictory systems have been devised, simply with the 
object of reconciling terms with facts, and of enabling 
the Christian to defend the divinity of the sacred writings 
from the objections of the rationalist, or the arguments 
of the biblical critics of our own times. 

s Comm. Theol. vol. i (1794), &c. 
9 Diss, de Luca emend. Matt. Ed. 1805. 
10 See a Critical Essay on the Gospel of St. Luke, by Dr. F. Schleier- 
macher (1825), passim. 



206 The English Reformation. 

This inspiration, however, is a dogma of Protestantism ; 
it is essential to the constitution of all and each of the 
sacred books; it is not a vague but a specific term; it 
embraces the Bible as a whole, and it attaches to each 
book, and each integral part of that book. It is, if I may 
so speak, the soul of the book ; it spiritualizes, it vivifies 
it : without it, there is nothing which is not human ; no- 
thing which is not simply man's work, and man's creation. 

But how shall this inspiration be proved ? Whatever 
inspiration be, it is something not external, but internal 
to the writer; how shall this be evidenced, and so clearly 
as to force the prudent and the wary to admit it ? After 
what has been said, it is too clear, that no one will stake 
his proofs on the internal evidences contained in the 
sacred writings. Every writer, nearly, adopts a different 
conclusion on this head, even when the writers are Chris- 
tians ; whilst rationalists scout the very idea of inspiration. 
Will it then be said, that the books announce in words 
their own inspiration ; that S. Paul, for example, as well 
as other sacred writers, declare that all Scripture is in- 
spired, and that, consequently, it is inspired? Surely 
not. It is on their inspiration that all their doctrinal 
authority depends ; until this is established, their authority 
is not greater than that of the works of any honest-minded 
and sincere ecclesiastical writer. You must not assume 
the inspiration of the writer whose words you adduce ; 
you must prove it. Even then, if the declaration of the 
claim to inspiration were clear and explicit, and each booh 
were distinctly known, to which the Apostle referred, 
when he honored it with the title of Scripture, the fact 
remains to be established, that the witness to all the rest 
of the sacred writers was inspired to write what he did. 



The English Reformation. 207 

How will S. Paul's inspiration, on which that of S. Luke, 
and S. Mark, of S. Jude, and S. James hypothetically 
depends, be itself established ? " It is not the word of 
God which doth, or possibly can assure us, that we do 
well to think that it is his word. For if any book of Scrip- 
ture did give testimony to all, yet still that Scripture 
which giveth credit to the rest, would require another 
Scripture to give credit unto it; neither could we ever 
come to any pause whereon to rest our assurance this 
way." 1 Such is the clear language of the illustrious 
author of the "Ecclesiastical Polity " language which 
others equally learned, in the Anglican Church, have 
made use of, in relation to the means of discovering the 
number and character of the inspired writings. " It is 
said," says Jeremy Taylor, "that the Scripture itself is 
wholly derived to us by tradition, and therefore, besides 
Scripture, tradition is necessary in the Church. And 
indeed, no man that understands this question denies it : 
this tradition, that these books were written by the Apos- 
tles, and were delivered by the Apostles as the word of 
God, relies principally upon tradition universal ; that is, 
it was witnessed to be true by all the Christian world, 
at their first being so consigned." 2 

It is useless to say, in order to escape the difficulty, 
that the Apostles were all inspired, and helped and aided 
by Christ and the Spirit of Truth at all times; for the 
question ever returns, whence is this information derived. 
From the Scriptures ? Then 1° You either assume their 
inspiration; you either suppose the writings to be from 
God ; or your position is not proved, as I have already 

1 Hooker, Eccles. Polity, b. ii, n. 4, p. 109, Ed. 1705. 

2 Taylor, vol. x, p. 426 ; see too p. 427. 



208 TJie English Reformation. 

shewn. 2° You apply the promises made to the collec- 
tive body of the Apostles, to each individual ; yon apply 
promises made to Apostles as oral teachers, to Apostles as 
writers. Now is this fair or logical? and on such prin- 
ciples can anyone honestly rest his belief in the inspiration 
of the sacred Scriptures ? Whilst Christ promised to 
preserve the Apostolic line from error, a promise, by the 
way, which is denied by Protestantism, he nowhere pro- 
mised to secure this or that individual — always excepting 
blessed Peter — from mistake or error. His promises were 
made to the body of pastors, not to each individual ; and 
such promises cannot be fairly applied to each person 
constituting that body, as is obvious in respect to promises 
made to other bodies. Again, as I have just noticed, the 
promises were made to the Apostolic body as preachers, 
teachers, instructors. Christ did indeed commission his 
Apostles to go forth to preach his Gospel, and to give 
them confidence, and others security, he promised ever to 
assist them. But did Christ bid his Apostles write ; did 
he command them to publish works ; and did he renew 
his promises of assistance, and declare that he and the 
Holy Spirit would then guide them into all truth ? He 
did not ; or at all events, the Scriptures have not recorded 
this important mandate and promise. 3° But if even this 
were conceded, the difficulty is far from being removed. 
For not all the writers of the New Testament were Apos- 
tles. Of the twelve, only five, if even five, wrote a word : 
Luke and Mark, to whom we are indebted for two of 
the gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles, as well as St. 
Paul, who wrote fourteen of the epistles, were not Apostles ; 
and down to our own times, it has been strenuously main- 
tained, that the Gospel of St. Matthew, in its present form,, 



The English Reformation. 209 

was not the work of that Apostle. 1 Put the case then, that 
personal inerrancy had been promised to the members of the 
Apostolic college under every kind of circumstance, whether 
they acted as missioners or as authors, it still remains to be 
shewn on what grounds is based the opinion or belief of St. 
Luke's and St. Mark's inspiration, as also the inspiration of 
those other portions of the sacred writings, about the author- 
ship of which, doubts have been, and are still entertained. 
Obviously, in this case, as indeed in every other, our 
only means of obtaining certainty and faith, is through 
the medium of an authority extrinsic to the Scriptures. 
We must, as Taylor and Hooker rightly observe, learn 
from tradition, and from tradition only, which are the 
sacred books, and what is their true character. 

An important dogma, then, one all-important to the 
Protestant, who proves, or affects to prove, each specific 
doctrine of his religion from the Bible only, is not prove- 
able from Scripture alone. The Protestant neither knows 
from the Scriptures which book is inspired, nor the mean- 
ing of the phrase inspiration, nor finally, what modification 
of that phrase is necessarily to be adopted when it is 
applied to the writings which form the Bible. Whatever 
he does know, on these heads, he has derived from tradi- 
tion; from an authority, living, teaching, pronouncing 
dogmatically, relative to the belief of former, as well as 
of present times, on all these points. In the face of these 
facts, how can an Anglican maintain the principle involved 
in the sixth Article, that nothing is to be believed which 
cannot be proved by the written word of God ? Since I 
shall have to draw attention to this point a little later, I 
will reserve the observations I have to make on the ob- 

1 See Neander's Refutation of Strauss' Life of Christ, p. 7. Bohris Ed. 



£10 The English Reformation. 

vious falseness of this declaration, to the close of this 
chapter. 

As the reader will at once see, the arguments which 
have been used to demonstrate the impossibility of proving 
the inspiration of the sacred Scriptures from the Scriptures, 
are equally applicable to the insufficiency of Scripture, as 
a rule whereby to prove the authenticity, the incorruption, 
and the number of the sacred writings, as well as the 
accuracy of the versions used by various sections of Chris- 
tians. For 1° How do we know that Isaias, or Moses, Peter, 
or James, ever wrote a line ? How do we know that those 
writings which pass under their names are their writings ? 
The original manuscripts have been lost for ages ; and 
if they even existed, we should be none the wiser, for 
their style of writing is absolutely unknown to us. From 
the belief of the Jews, as well as from the belief of the 
Christian, we learn, indeed, that these and other indivi- 
duals did write ; we know, moreover, from a combination 
of circumstances, such as serve to prove the authenticity 
and genuineness of any other kind of written instrument, 
that these writings are indeed the productions of the in- 
dividuals to whom they are ascribed, and that they are 
the faithful records of what passed in times long since 
gone by ; but this information is traditional, it is extrinsic, 
it is something beyond and out of the sacred writings 
themselves: it is human evidence of the same kind and 
character, as serves to prove the writings of Cicero or 
Livy, of Anacreon or Homer, of Chrysostom or Gregory. 
This is the extrinsic proof which scholars may have ; the 
best proof which learning can offer; but, by the bulk 
of mankind, another kind of authority must necessarily be 
admitted, if the writings of the Old and New Testaments 



The English Reformation. 211 

are to be accepted as genuine and authentic ; for men, in 
general, are unable, on many accounts, to prosecute this 
critical examination. They do and must rely on general 
testimony, on the outward assent of nations and peoples : 
they admit, in a word, this fact, on the same grounds 
as they receive other facts of history, other records, other 
testimonies in relation to events which they themselves 
never witnessed, and to persons and things of which they 
never had had ocular testimony. Indeed, the wisest of 
men admit the Scriptures on this general authority. Even 
St. Austin felt himself obliged, though he was the oracle 
of his day, and is admitted by Protestants to be the most 
learned of the fathers, to acknowledge, that it was not in 
consequence of his own individual and isolated researches, 
that he admitted the sacred books, but on account of a 
general tradition embodied in the teaching of the Church. 
" I would not believe the Gospel," he exclaimed, (Contra 
Epist. Fund.) " if the authority of the Church did not 
induce me to do so." This language was afterwards 
adopted by Bishop Taylor and Hooker ; it is still the 
language of all persons who deserve the name of scholars, 
for every scholar, everyone indeed, possessed of a rea- 
soning mind, sees at once and admits that evidence, testi- 
mony, and authority, wholly independent of the Scriptures, 
can alone convince us of their character, number, genuine- 

1 The reader will here appreciate the usual Protestant objection against 
tradition. It is often said by Anglicans, when arguing against Catholics : 
" to prove any specific doctrine, you must read all the fathers, and how 
can each one do this ? " Of course, the objection, as usual, is in itself 
false ; its falsehood is manifest, from what has been said relative to the 
authority of the Church : but how will the Protestant prove his knowledge 
of the sacred books ? From general tradition ? That he rejects. From 
reading all the fathers ? ! 



212 The English Reformation. 

ness, inspiration, and incorruption, not to refer to other 
important items connected with the Bible. 

And indeed, do not the framers of the Articles, seem, 
on one occasion at least, to throw themselves completely 
on uninterrupted tradition for their belief in the Scrip- 
tures ? Do they not so completely rely upon it, as to 
believe whatever is thus evidenced, and to reject what 
has not this evidence ? Let the reader attend to the 
wording of the sixth Article, and he will admit, that to 
authority, the framers of the Articles assign their belief 
in the writings which they are pleased to call Scripture, 
to the exclusion of every other work. (i In the name of 
the Holy Scripture — I am citing the words of the 6th 
Article — we do understand those canonical books of the 
old and new Testament, of whose authority was never any 
doubt in the Church." Not to the intrinsic argument do 
they appeal, not from that do they state that their belief in 
all and each of the books is derived, but to the extrinsic 
proof they refer, and that proof is the uniform assent of 
all former ages. To this, Burnet in his proof of the sixth 
Article, and Pretyman, the copier of Burnet, in his Ele- 
ments of Christian Theology, and Lardner, in his learned 
work, On the Credibility of the Gospel History, and 
Michaelis in his Introduction to the Sacred Scriptures, 
and Paley in his Evidences, refer, and on this as the proof 
of the Sacred Writings they ultimately rest. 1 

The framers of the Articles would have us believe, and 
all who receive the Articles should believe, that the 
books received by them as canonical were formerly uni- 
versally admitted; that in fact no doubt about any of 

1 See all the works cited, and others of a similar character; as also 
Gray's Old Testament, &c. passim. 



The English Reformation. 213 

them ever existed in the Church. The existence of doubt 
in regard to some works of the old Testament, is urged 
too as a cause for rejecting and placing them in the rank 
of Apocryphal writings ; of writings to which little respect 
indeed has been latterly shown ; for the Bible Society has 
deemed it advisable altogether to ignore them in its modern 
editions of the Holy Scriptures. 

It is time for us to test this Article, and this common 
belief of Protestants : and if it can be shown, 1° that some 
works which they receive as unquestionably Scripture, 
have been doubted of; and 2° that there is as much evi- 
dence for several of the so called Apocryphal writings, as 
there is for several of their canonical writings, it will be 
still further manifest how little reliance can be placed on 
the dogmatical decisions of the framers of the thirty-nine 
Articles, and how utterly worthless must be a system, 
based on such authorities. 

Among the writings of the new Testament which 
Anglicanism receives as canonical, and consequently as 
unquestioned at any former period, in the Church, are 
the following : 1° the Epistle to the Hebrews, 2° the 
Revelations, 3° the second Epistle of S. Peter, 4° the 
second and third Epistles of S. John, 5° the Epistle of S. 
James, and 6° the Epistle of S. Jude. Now the sequel 
will prove that all these writings have been doubted of in 
the Church, and doubted of by many in the Church, and 
that this doubt lasted for a considerable length of time. 

1° Eusebius, 2 treating expressly about those Scriptures 
which were acknowledged as genuine, and those which 
were not, says : " This appears to me to be the proper 

2 Eusebius, E. H., 1. iii, c. 25. The certain books are called, the 
d[xo\oyov[jisva, the doubtful, the dvTi\ey6[xeva, the spurious, v69a. 



£14 The English Reformation. 

place to give a summary statement of the books of the 
New Testament already mentioned. And here, among 
the first, must be placed the holy quarternion of the Gos- 
pels; these are followed by the book of the Acts of the 
Apostles; after this must be mentioned the Epistles of 
St. Paul ; which are followed by the acknowledged First 
Epistle of John, as also the First of Peter, to be admitted 
in like manner. After these, are to be placed, if proper, 
the Revelation of John, concerning which we shall offer 
the different opinions in due time. These are, then, 
acknowledged as genuine. Among the disputed boohs, 
although they are well known and approved by many, 
is reputed, that called, the Epistle of James and Jude; 
also, the second Ep>istle of Peter, and those called the 
Second and Third of John; whether they are of the 
Evangelist, or of some other of the same name. Among 
the spurious, must be numbered the books called the 
Acts of Paul, and that called Pastor, and the Revelation 
of Peter. Besides these, the books called the Epistle of 
Barnabas, and what are called the Institutions of the 
Apostles. Moreover, as I said before, if it should appear 
right, the Revelation of John, which some, as before said, 
reject, but others rank among the genuine." Speaking 
elsewhere, 1 he observes : <( These however are those that 
are called Peter's Epistles, of which I have understood 
only one Epistle to be genuine, and admitted by the 
ancient Fathers. The Epistles of Paul are fourteen, all 
well known and beyond doubt. It should not, however, 
be concealed, that some have set aside the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, saying, that it was disputed, as not being one 
of St. Paul's Epistles " 

1 Libro iii, c. 3. 



The English Reformation. 215 

In the sixth book of his history, Eusebius appeals to 
and analyses some of the works of Clement of Alexandria. 
Eeferring to the Stromata of Clement, he says : " In 
these he also makes nse of testimony from the a.\)TiKey6y.evct, 
or disputed Scriptures; also from that book called, the 
"Wisdom of Solomon, and that of Jesns the son of Sirach ; 
also the Epistle to the Hebrews; that of Barnabas and 
Clement, and Jude. 

From Eusebius, then, it is plain, that all the books 
named by me as of once doubtful authority, were at a 
very early period acknowledged to be such, and conse- 
quently that the Sixth Article is not only false, but also 
that the very foundations therein established, whereon to 
raise the Sacred Scriptures, are plainly unsound — unfit 
for the work which they were intended to uphold. From 
other authorities, this same fact will become plainer and 
plainer. 

St. Jerome, in his letter to Dardanus, says : " The 
Epistle entitled to the Hebrews, is received not only by 
all the Eastern Churches, but also by all the Ecclesiastical 
Greek writers of former times ; though many ascribe it 
to Barnabas, or Clement; and it is of no consequence 
whose it is, since it is by some writer of the Church, and 
is daily read in the Churches. And if the Latins do not 
receive it among the canonical writings, neither do the 
Greeks, using the same liberty, receive the Apocalypse." 
(Epist. 129, torn, ii, p. 608.) 2 From this testimony, it 
follows that the Revelations, and the Epistle of St. Paul to 
the Hebrews, were not respectively admitted by the 

3 See also St. Jerome's Letters to Evagrius and Paulirms, in which he 
distinctly states that the Epistle to the Hebrews was denied by many. 



216 The English Reformation. 

Eastern and Western Churches; and to the attentive 
reader it will appear more- than doubtful if the Epistle to 
the Hebrews was looked upon even by the Easterns as a 
divine and inspired writing ; for it was ascribed to authors 
whose genuine writings have not been admitted to be 
inspired; and the extent of St. Jerome's admissions 
amounts to no more than this, that it was read in the 
Church : a fact which in no way establishes the Scriptural 
character of a work in the opinion of Protestants, who 
read in the Church, works, the inspiration of which they 
strenuously oppose. 

Caius, a Homan Presbyter, maintained that the Apoca- 
lypse was the production of the infamous Cerinthus ; l nor 
was he singular in this belief, as may be gathered from 
the treatise ' On the Pro?nises ' by the illustrious Dionysius 
of Alexandria. " There were (he says) some ancient 
writers who utterly rejected the Apocalypse, and confuted 
it chapter by chapter ; they asserted that is was through- 
out ignorant and irrational, and that its very name was a 
fallacy, since it was not written by St. John, nor could 
that properly be called a revelation which was buried 
beneath a dark and impenetrable cloud of ignorance. It 
was not written, they affirmed, by any of the Apostles, 
nor by any pious member of the Catholic Church, but ly 
the heretic Cerinthus, who wished to give to his own 
forgery the credit of the Apostle's name. But for myself, 
I do not reject a work which is looked upon with reve- 
rence by so many Christians." 3 Further, this work was 
not admitted by the Greeks till after the fourth century ; 
and it was excluded from the catalogue of the Holy Scrip- 
tures named in the list published among the Apostolical 

i Apud Euseb. H. E., 1. iii, c. 28. 2 Ibid, 1. vii, c. 25. 



The English Reformation. 217 

canons; from the sixty canons of the Council ofLaodicea; 
from the catalogue of S. Cyril of Jerusalem, to which I 
shall presently direct the reader's attention, on account of 
the principle which it contains relative to the means of 
discovering which were and which were not, inspired 
writings ; and also from the metrical catalogue of S. Gre- 
gory of Nazianzum. Amphilochius of Iconium does in- 
deed, in his catalogue, refer to the Apocalypse, but his 
testimony will not help the Protestant ; for if he state 
that some received it, he adds the important remark, that 
the majority looked upon it as certainly spurious. It is 
deserving of notice, too, that the Apocalypse, as well as 
several other writings of the New Testament, are not 
contained in the famous Syriac version of the Scriptures, 
which is certainly very ancient, and which, as Postel 
informs us, who travelled into the East for the express 
object of discovering whatever he could connected with 
the old version of the Scriptures, the Syrians themselves 
ascribe to St. Mark. Tremelius 3 maintains, that "it is 
probable that the version of the Syrians was made in the 
very infancy of the Church, either by the Apostles them- 
selves or their disciples." Fuller is equally positive as 
to its merits and antiquity — " It is a most ancient, a very 
excellent and truly divine monument of Christianity," 4 
and Walton strives to shew that it is coeval with the 
Apostolic days. 5 Simon says, that " it preceded all those 
schisms which afterwards divided the Eastern nations into 
different sects ; and on this account it is highly esteemed 
as an authoritative record." 6 Jones, too, defends its ex- 

3 Tremelius, Pref. to this version. i Fuller, Miscel. Sac, 1. iii, c. 20. 

5 Walton's Prol, 13, § 15. 

5 Simon, Histoire Critique du N. T., part ii, c. 13, p. 121. 

L 



218 The English Reformation. 

treme antiquity, and adduces all kinds of evidence, in- 
ternal and external, in support of his opinion. 1 Now in 
this version are wanting, the Second Epistle of Peter ; 
the Second and Third of St. John; the Epistle of St. 
Jude; and the Apocalypse ; in other words, those writings 
which we have stated to have been either openly doubted 
of, or openly denied, are here entirely omitted. 

In concluding this portion of our examination, I will 
adduce a very important passage from the fourth catecheti- 
cal instruction of St. Cyril of Jerusalem: "Learn care- 
fully (he says) from the Cliurch, which are the Scriptures 
of the Old and which of the New Law ; and do not read 
to me anything of the Apochrypha; for why shouldst 
thou, who knowest not what are acknowledged by all, 
(d(j.oKoyov[X6va) in vain torment and trouble thyself about 
those which are doubtful and controverted (i/x(p/€#AAo/x£V#). 
Read the Divine Scriptures of the Old Law, the twenty- 
two books which the seventy-two interpreters translated. 
These read, and with the Apochrypha concern not thyself. 
Those only meditate upon which we always read openly 
in the churches. The Apostles and the early Bishops, 
the Prelates of the Church who have delivered these 
books, were much wiser than thou art. Do not therefore, 
being a child of the Church, transgress and corrupt the 
laws and determinations of the Fathers." Next follows a 
list of the books of both Testaments, with respect to which, 
it is to be observed, that Baruch is united to Jeremy, whilst 
the Apocalypse is altogether omitted. The catechist then 



1 Jones' " New and full method of settling the Canonical Authority of 
the New Test.," p. 110, &c. See also Wiseman's Horcz Syriacce, and 
Butler's Horce Biblicce, vol. i, p. 165. 



The English Reformation. £19 

adds : " Let all the rest be held extraneous, and in the se- 
cond rank ; and those which are not read in the churches, 
read not thyself, as thou hast already heard." The prin- 
ciple of Church authority is here upheld : by it Cyril knew, 
and others like Cyril, which books were worthy of being read 
in the churches, and of being honored as divine. In what 
manner this authority spoke from the close of the fourth 
century, when, owing to the restoration of peace, and the 
increased facilities of communication, evidence could be 
sifted, and publicity given to the actual, though till then 
not formally promulgated, belief of the leading pastors of 
the Church, we shall have occasion to shew hereafter. 

Whether then Protestants reject or admit authority, they 
will find themselves in a strange dilemma. To reject it, 
is to cut off the only means by which the authenticity, 
&c, of any work can be proved ; and to admit it, either 
because it has been always unvarying and universal, or 
because it eventually became so, is to destroy in the first 
instance the canon which they themselves have framed ; 
for no such universal and unvarying tradition existed from 
the beginning in respect to several books of holy writ, as 
has been already proved to evidence. But if the books 
be admitted because eventually the tradition became uni- 
form, then will they be compelled to admit the Catholic 
Canon ; for the tradition then only became uniform, when 
the so-called apocryphal works were acknowledged to be 
the written word of God. 

Prior to the close of the fourth century, there is not a 
single catalogue of the Sacred Scriptures which wholly 
agrees with the Canon admitted by Protestants. The 
oldest catalogue known is that of Papias or Caius, to 
which Muratori and the venerable President of Magdalen 



220 The English Reformation. 

College, Oxford, Dr. Routh, have drawn public attention. 
It is certainly as old as the second century. Wisdom is 
here inserted after the Second Epistle of St. John, whilst 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, that of St. James, the Third 
of St. John, and the Second and Third of St. Peter, are 
toholly omitted. Melito, of Sardis, omits Esther and 
Nehemias ; Cyril and the Council of Laodicea omit the 
booh of Apocalypse ; the Apostolic Canons enumerate 
among the sacred books, Judith, three books of Machabees, 
with the addition of the Wisdom of Sirach, or Ecclesias- 
ticus, for the younger people; as also two Epistles of 
Clement. The Athanasian synopsis omits Esther, and 
admits Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, and the 
history of Bel and the Dragon ; Epiphanius too receives 
Baruch; and Hilary, of Poictiers, acknowledges as 
divine, the Epistle of Jeremias, and also informs us that 
Tobias and Judith were looked upon by some parties as 
canonical works. Already I have stated what books were 
omitted from the ancient Syriac version ; and if I refer to 
the Vetus Itala, I shall have at once drawn the reader's 
attention to the important fact, that in the oldest version 
ever made of the Sacred Scriptures, every book admitted 
by the Catholic Church is inserted, if not from a convic- 
tion on the part of the translators of the divinity of each 
work, at least from a persuasion that those books were 
sacred, and might ultimately be adjudged worthy of a 
place among the really inspired books. 

At the close of the fourth century, the traditions of the 
Church began to assume greater consistency. In the 
interval which had elapsed between the cessation of per- 
secution and the close of the fourth century, the prelates 
had found leisure and opportunities to collect and examine 



The English Reformation. 221 

the belief of the respective Churches of Christendom. 
Obviously, such an examination was requisite, from the 
nature of several of the sacred documents, and the re- 
moteness of the countries which had been favoured by 
Apostles and others with their writings. Whilst some of 
the Epistles were written to the Christians at Rome, and 
Ephesus, and Corinth, and Galatia, others were directed 
to private individuals, and seemed to have been as St. 
Paul's Epistle to Philemon, in behalf of Onesimus, and 
St. John's, addressed to the charitable Gaius, intended 
solely for the persons to whom they were originally ad- 
dressed. To give publicity to these and similar writings, 
to obtain evidence of their high and divine origin, re- 
quired both time and a careful examination of evidence ; 
and to search into this evidence, whilst the Emperors 
raged against Christianity, and its sacred records, was 
difficult, if not impossible. At the period named, we see 
the results of this examination. In the year 397, Aurelius, 
Bishop of Carthage, presided over a Council of Prelates, 
convened at his see. S. Austin assisted at it, as well as 
forty -three other prelates of the African Church. In this 
synod the following decree was passed : " That nothing 
besides the Canonical Scriptures be read in the Church, 
under the name of Divine Scriptures. And these are the 
Canonical Scriptures : — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Num- 
bers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Puth, four books of 
the Kingdoms, two books of the Paralipomena, Job, the 
Psalter of David, five books of Solomon, the books of 
the twelve prophets, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezekiel, Daniel, 
Tobias, Judith, Esther, two books of Esdras, and two 
books of Machabees. The books of the New Testament 
are : — the four books of the Gospels, one book of the Acts 



The English Reformation. 

of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, one 
Epistle of the same to the Hebrews, two Epistles of the 
Apostle Peter, three of the Apostle John, one of the 
Apostle Jude, and one of James, and the Revelation of 
John." l If the reader bear in mind, 1° that the Africans 
and others looked upon the prophecy of Baruch as the 
composition of Jeremias, — " Some (says St. Austin) ascribe 
this testimony (Baruch iii, 36, 38) not to Jeremias," but to 
his scribe, called Baruch, though it is usually reckoned to 
be from Jeremias, 2 and 2° that Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus 
were called the works of Solomon, as St. Austin expressly 
assures us — " the two boohs, one called Wisdom, and the 
other Ecclesiasticus, are styled Solomon 's, from a certain 
resemblance to his writings, but are very uniformly declared 
to have been written by Jesus the son of Sirach, which 
books, however, since they have deserved to be received 
into authority, are to be reckoned among the prophetical 
writings," — it will be manifest that every so-called Apo- 
chryphal writing was looked upon as having such extrin- 
sic evidence in its favour as to deserve to be classed, 
as early as the year 397, among those Scriptures which 
had been received from the earliest period of the Church. 
On what principles, too, the Bishops then proceeded, 
we may easily gather from St. Austin's famous work 
on Christian Doctrine. (i Let him (he says) who desires 
carefully to examine the sacred writings, in receiving 
the Canonical Scriptures, follow the authority of the 
greater number of the Catholic Churches ; amongst which 
Churches, assuredly are those which are Apostolic Sees, 

1 Labbe's Concil., t.ii,p. 1177. 2 De Civ. Dei, 1. xviii, c. 33. 

3 The Acts of the Council of 397, were approved of in the Sixth 
Council of Carthage in 419, during the Pontificate of Boniface. See 
Hardouin, t. i, fol. 968. 



The English Reformation. 223 

and have received letters from the Apostles. This rule, 
therefore, he will observe with regard to Canonical Scrip- 
tures; he will prefer such as are received by all Catholic 
Churches, to those which some do not receive ; and with 
regard to such as are not received by all, he will prefer 
those which are received by the greater number, and by 
the more eminent Churches, to those which are received 
by the smaller number, and by Churches of less authority. 
But if he should find some received by the greatest number 
of Churches, and others by the more eminent — which 
I think can scarcely happen — I think such Scriptures are 
to be held by him in equal authority." 4 The principle 
here advocated is the same as St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 
whose words we have already adduced, maintained. On 
the judgment of the Church, the Eastern and Western 
prelates relied for their certainty of, and belief in, the 
Canonical Scriptures. 

Through the Pontiff of Eome, Innocent, who succeeded 
Anastasius in 402, the history of the Canon in its 
entirety became better and better known. Writing to 
Exuperius, Bishop of Toulouse, Innocent gives the follow- 
ing list of holy writings : — (i The following summary will 
shew what books are comprised in the Canon of the 
Holy Scriptures. These, then, are the writings which 
you have desired me to mention : the five books of Moses ; 
namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deu- 
teronomy; Joshua, Judges, four books of Kingdoms, 
together with Kuth; sixteen books of the Prophets; five 
books of Solomon; the Psalter: of the historical books, 
one book of Job, Tobias, Esther, Judith, two books of the 
Machabees, two books of Esdras, and two books of Para- 

4 Libro ii, de Doct. Christ., c. 8. 



224 The English Reformation. 

lipomena. Of the New Testament, there are the four 
Gospels, fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, three of 
John, two of Peter, the Epistle of Jude, that of James, 
the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse of John." 
Such was the faith of Rome when Innocent ascended the 
pontifical throne. The examination had been instituted 
in Italy and Africa, and the result was the same: the 
admission of the same Canon which was definitively settled 
more than a thousand years afterwards by the Fathers of 
the Council of Trent. To the enemies of Pome, I will 
address the language of St. Jerome, in reference to 
Innocent : " Keep the faith of holy Innocent, who was 
the successor in the Apostolic see of the above-named 
Anastasius ;" 2 and of the Fathers assembled at Tours 
in 567: "What priest shall dare to oppose such de- 
crees as have emanated from the Apostolic See ? . . . . 
Let us, therefore, following the decree of Innocent, 
insert it among our canons, and decree that it shall be 
observed." 3 

The next witness, after an interval of eighty-nine years, 
is Pope Gelasius, in conjunction with seventy bishops, 
who met together in council in 494. 4 The identical canon, 
sanctioned by the authorities already named, was again 
confirmed. As a modern writer has well observed, " such 
confirmation had become necessary, on account of either 
the ignorance or perverseness of several theologians at 
Marseilles, who were disposed to quarrel with St. Augustine 

1 Apud Coustant. Epist. Pont. Kom., inter Innocentianas, Ep. vi, c. 7. 

2 Epist. 130, alias 8 ad Demetriadem, § 16. 

3 Concil. Turonen. can. xx, Labbe, t. v, p. 859. The decretal letter of 
Innocent to Exuperius, was written on the 20th of Feb. 405. 

4 Concil. Mansi, viii, p. 145; Labbe, iv, 1260; Hardouin, t. ii, p. 937. 



The English Reformation. 225 

for quoting from Wisdom; and who took upon themselves 
to aver, that that book was not canonical. It will be 
borne in mind, that about all such matters, there appears, 
in ecclesiastical history, just the slight amount of contro- 
versy, which tends to throw forward the real truth, and 
render forgery or collusion impossible. The decisions of 
a succession of illustrious Pontiffs at length hushed all 
opposition throughout the Western world." Pearson, 
indeed, in his vindication of the Epistles of St. Ignatius, 
asserts, that the author of the list of sacred writings, pub- 
lished in 494, is wholly unknown ; and Cave in his 
literary history, hesitates not to say that it is absolutely 
supposititious. These and other writers, dreaded to ac- 
knowledge its genuineness, for reasons which need not 
be further referred to ; but scholars are now generally 
agreed, that the document did emanate from the Pope 
whose name it bears, and this has been abundantly proved 
by Coustant, 5 Lupus, 6 Mabillon, 7 Pagi, 8 Fontanini, 9 and 
others. 

It is true, indeed, that in the Gelasian decree, express 
mention is not made of Baruch; but I have already stated, 
on the authority of St. Austin, and his authority might 
be confirmed by a hundred references to other early eccle- 
siastical writings, that it was the custom to unite Baruch 
to Jeremias' prophecy. In some copies too, of this epistle, 
mention is made of only one book of Machabees; but 
these are incorrect. The ancient and authoritative copies 
of this epistle, distinctly state, that two books of Macha- 

5 In diatriba de decreto Gelasii Papse. t. ii, Epis. R. R. P. P. n. 4. 

6 Bib. P. P. t. xv, Ep. 128. 

7 In disq. de Cursu G-allicano, § 1, n. 9. 

8 Ad aim. 494. 9 De Antiq. hort. 1. ii, c. 3. 

L2 



£26 The English Reformation. 

bees entered into the canon of the sacred Scriptures. 1 
But even if the text were such as it is represented, it 
would not contradict either the former decrees of Carthage 
and Innocent, or the later ones of Eugenius and Trent; 
for these two books contain but one and the same history, 
in consequence of which, both Jews and Greeks cited 
them as one work, as we learn from St. Jerome and 
St. Isidore. 

From the close of the fifth century, the same canon of 
Scriptures seems to have been followed, throughout nearly 
the whole world ; and almost every individual, whose task 
it was to pass any observation on the sacred writings, 
refers to each book of this canon as unquestionable Scrip- 
ture, down to the fifteenth age, when a Pontiff again gave 
expression to the belief of the Church on this head. As 
intermediate witnesses between the times of Gelasius and 
Eugenius, I will refer the reader to the illustrious Hinc- 
mar, 2 who names the catalogue of Gelasius, without, how- 
ever, adducing the words of it; and to the illustrious 
preceptor of Charlemagne, who was the glory of our 
country, Alcuin. 3 In his work, which is entitled, "A 
Disputation of Children, on various matters^ Alcuin thus 
proceeds : " Into how many books is the Old Testament 
divided ? Answer : Into forty-five. Q. How are they 
called? A. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deu- 
teronomy, Jesus Nave, Judges, Ruth, four books of the 
kingdoms, two books of the Paralipomena, Job, the Psalter 
of David, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of Canticles, 
sixteen books of the Prophets, Tobias, Judith, Hesther, 

1 See the copies published by Holstein and Schelstrate, and Chifflet ; as 
also Hardouin, t. ii, col. 937. 

2 Vol. ii, p. 638. 3 Vol. ii, p. 431. 



The English Reformation. 227 

and Machabees. Q. Are there any other books of the 
Old Testament? A. There are. Q. Which are they? 
A. Some add Kuth and Gynoth, which in Latin is called 
" Lamentatio," the Lamentation of Jeremias, to the sacred 
writings, and make twenty-four volumes of the Old Tes- 
tament, according with the number of the elders who 
assisted before the throne of the Lord. Q. Are there any 
other books of the Old Testament? A. Yes. Q. What do 
you mean? A. There is a fourth class of those books, 
which are not in the Hebrew canon. Q. How are they 
named ? A. The first is the book of Wisdom, the second 
Ecclesiasticus, the third Tobi, the fourth Judith, the fifth 
and sixth the Machabees, which though classed by the 
Jews among the Apocrypha, the Church of Christ honors 
and extols as divine books." These last words had pre- 
viously been used by S. Austin, and they contain the 
principle, whereby divine were distinguished from merely 
human — sacred from common writings. 

As the Council of Florence, which is mainly memorable 
in the annals of ecclesiastical history, for the temporary 
reunion of the Latin and Greek Churches, was termi- 
nating, the ambassadors of the Patriarch of Armenia, who 
was at the head of a numerous but schismatical Church, 
arrived at Florence, in order to unite their Church, if this 
could be effected, with the Church in communion with 
Rome. This object was speedily accomplished. Prior, 
however, to the departure of the deputies, the Pontiff 
drew up a decree, containing many points of instruction, 
which were adjudged by him to be either necessary or 
useful for the united Church ; and the number of books 
which formed the Ecclesiastical Canon, was one of the 
matters which was distinctly named. In this document, the 



228 The English Reformation. 

list of the sacred books corresponds exactly with the list 
already given — a list which was eventually sanctioned by 
the decree of the fathers assembled together at Trent/ 
and guarded by an anathema, directed against those who 
should hereafter dare to say, that the books admitted by 
the Church as Scripture, were not sacred and canonical. 

And if we now pass from a general to a specific state- 
ment ; if, no longer consulting catalogues, we turn to 
particular authorities in favour of each of the books which 
Protestants have rejected, we shall not fail to find floating 
evidence, in nearly every quarter, of the existence of a 
tradition in various portions of the Church, regarding the 
divinity of the books which the one Church of God uni- 
versally admits. It would be a nearly endless task to 
adduce full proofs in favour of each of the rejected divine 
writings ; a few authorities will, under circumstances, be 
deemed, by the. general reader, amply suflicient. 

1° Tobias. This work is cited as Scripture, by 1° St. 
Cyprian: in his work, " De Opere et Eleemosynis" he 
says (page 303, Ed. 1616.), that "the Holy Spirit says in 
the divine Scriptures, that almsgiving freeth from death." 
— (Tobias, c. xii, 9.). And further (page 308), he cites 
c. ii, 4, and c. iv, in proof of the religious instructions 
which Tobias gave his son, in regard to corporal works of 



1 Modern writers are for ever sneering at what they call the small 
number of those who passed the decree at Trent. But what are the 
facts ? There were present one hundred and one distinguished individuals : 
five cardinals, eight archbishops, forty bishops, five generals of religious 
orders, three abbots, and forty of the picked scholars of Europe, who 
assisted the prelates by their learning and abilities. This decree received 
the approval of the hundreds who assisted at the last session. What 
authority can Anglicanism offer like this, for the Anglican Scriptures f 



The English Reformation. 229 

mercy. 2° St. Ambrose/ in two works calls this book 
"Scripture, and a prophetical work." 3° St. Austin, 1. ii, 
c. 8, De Doct. Christ, where he professedly treats on the 
sacred Scriptures, ranks Tobias in the number of sacred 
writings. 3 St. Hilary proves, from the intercourse of 
Eaphael and Tobias, two things : that angels exist, and 
that they assist men. St. Chrysostom refers to it in his 
fifteenth Homily on the Hebrews; and St. Isidore 4 calls it, 
in conjunction with Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Judith, and 
the Machabees, divine Scripture. As we have seen too, 
it was admitted by Innocent I, in his letter to Exuperius ; 
by Gelasius, in the Roman synod ; and by the fathers 
assembled on three different occasions at Carthage ; and 
it was inserted in the edition of the Scriptures called the 
Seventy, as also in the Vetus Itala, the oldest Christian 
translation in existence. In fine, Origen distinctly refers 
to it as sacred Scripture. 5 

2° Judith. The book of Judith was admitted into the 
canon of Scripture, by the fathers assembled together at 
the great and important Council of Nice ; and in conse- 
quence of this acceptance, and the persuasion of friends, 
St. Jerome was induced to translate it, as well as other 
sacred writings. " The book of Judith," he says, u which 
is considered as less suitable as an authority in contro- 
verted questions, is read by the Jews among the sacred 



2 L. vi, c. 4, in Hexemeron; and 1. de Tobia, c. 1. 

3 See the place cited. 

4 L. vi, c. 1, Etymol. Sapientia, Ecclesiasticus, Tobias, Judith, Macca- 
bseorum (libri), quos licet Hebrsei inter Apocrypha separent, Ecclesia 
tamen Christi inter divinos libros et honorat et praedicat." The reader 
will have seen that these precise words were adopted by Alcuin. 

5 Origen, 1. v, contra Celsum, p. 244. 



230 The English Reformation. 

writings (hagiographa). Being written, however, in Chal- 
daic, it is ranked amongst the historical books. But as 
the Council of Nice is recorded to have reckoned this 
book in the number of the holy Scriptures, I have yielded 
to your request, or rather to your command, and have 
translated it." 1 It is cited by St. Clement of Rome, 2 
Clement of Alexandria, 3 Origen, 4 Tertullian, 5 Isidore, 6 and 
Hilary of Poictiers, 7 without hesitation; and it is plain 
that they must have felt what the Church now believes, 
and has for ages believed, that the work was really divine. 
Add to this the statement of St. Jerome, relative to its 
being admitted among the Hagiographa, and the decisions 
of the fathers at Carthage and at Borne, and the cha- 
racter of the work will be readily admitted to be clearly 
established. 

3° Wisdom. St. Polycarp has left us one brief epistle. 
Though there is scarcely an allusion to the Old Testament, 
in his Epistle to the Philippians, we have evidence of his 
belief in respect to the book of Wisdom. It is cited as 
the work of a prophet, p. 13, Ed. Le Moyne. Polycarp's 
scholar and disciple, St. Irenseus, as Eusebius informs us, 8 
cited this work, in a book which has been since lost, 



1 Prsef. in lib. Judith. If the Jews, as St. Jerome states, ranked Judith 
among the Hagiographa, must they not have acknowledged it to he a 
portion of the Scripture ? Assuredly, many of the fathers, and St. Jerome 
is one of the number, constantly assure us, that the Jewish Scriptures 
were divided into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa. See the 
Prol. Galeatus of St. Jerome, as also his Preface to the hook of Daniel, in 
which this triple division is retained. 

2 Epist. 1, ad Cor. s l. iv, Strom, p. 521. 

4 Horn, xix, in Jer. 5 C. ult. de Monog. 

6 L. vi, c. 6, Etymol. and 1. vii, c. 8, et 1. de vita Sane. c. 64. 

7 In Psal. exxv. s H. E. 1. v, c. 26. 



The English Reformation. 231 

entitled, A Treatise on Various Matters; and in his book 
On Heresies, he again refers to it, citing c. vi, £0. 9 Cle- 
ment of Alexandria, referring to the third chapter, calls 
this the divine Wisdom. " The divine Wisdom," he says, 
u says of martyrs, f they seemed to the eyes of the foolish 
to die.' " 10 Equally emphatic is the great biblical scholar, 
Origen: "We read and know, from the sacred books, 
that God loves all things that are, and hates none of the 
things which he has made, for there was nothing which 
he disliked. And we read too, that f he has mercy upon 
all, because he can do all things, and overlooks the sins 
of men for the sake of repentance. 5 " — Wisdom, xi, 24-5. 11 
St. Cyprian, too, bears witness to the faith of the African 
Church : " The Holy Spirit has shown and declared, 
through Solomon, saying, and e though in the sight of 
men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immor- 
tality.' " — Wisdom iii, 4. 13 Thus he declares two things : 
1° That Solomon was the author of the book of Wisdom ; 
and 2° That what was said, emanated from the Holy 
Spirit. It is also called the work of Solomon by Metho- 
dius; 13 by St. Athanasius it is honored with the names of 
"the Wisdom of God," and "the Scripture;" 141 and by 
the bishops of Egypt, Lybia, and Pentapolis, who espoused 
the cause of the sainted Archbishop of Alexandria, it is 
said, citing Wisdom, " Let them fear that which is written 
in the sacred Scriptures . . . . f The mouth that belieth, 
killeth the soul.'"— Wisdom i, ll. 15 St. Cyril of Jeru- 

9 Adv. hser. 1. iv, c. 75. i0 L. iv, Strom, et alibi passim. 

11 L. iv, c. Celsum, p. 178. 13 De Exhort. Martyrii. 

13 Apud. Epiph. hser. 64, n. 19 and 30. 

14 Tom. i, p. 11, Contra Gentes, and p. 12. 

15 Ad Imp. Constant. Apol. torn, i, p. 723, opp. S. Athanasii. 



232 The English Reformation. 

salem too, calls this Solomon's work, when he adduces 
the xiii chapter, v. 5, of Wisdom; 1 and St. Hilary entitles 
the writer a Prophet : 2 . . . . ee The prophet teaches us, 
saying, c the Spirit of God hath filled the whole world.' " 
— Wisdom i, 7. Nor is the language of Epiphanius less 
emphatic ; indeed, he classes this work with those writings 
which were unquestionable, and cites it in such a way 
as to leave no doubt of his own convictions. Writing 
against the heretic Aetius, he thus expresses himself: 
il Even had you, Aetius, been born of the Spirit, it be- 
hoved you to do this : that after turning over all the 
sacred records from Genesis to Esther, which are in 
number twenty-seven, though reduced to twenty-two ; 
also the four sacred Gospels, and the fourteen Epistles 
of Paul, the Acts, also, of the Apostles, .... and the 
Catholic Epistles of James, Peter, John and Jude, the 
Apocalypse of John, the books of Wisdom, namely of 
Solomon, the Son of Sirach; after, in fine, running over 
all the books of Scripture, you might condemn your- 
self.. . . ." 3 And again, refuting Hierarcus, he calls the 
writer of Wisdom, iv, 8, the blessed and wise Solomon — 
the most blessed of prophets ; 4 and this same authorship 
is ascribed to Wisdom, by St. Basil of Csesarea, 5 who 
repeatedly quotes the work when confuting heresy, and 
defending the truth. If the reader wish for further au- 
thorities, which will hardly be the case, for surely the 
evidence already adduced, coming from the East and the 

1 Cat. ix, p. 75. 

2 Tract, in Psal. 145 ; see too enar. in Psal. 127. 

3 Adv. hser. 1. iii, hser. 76. 

4 L. v, contra Eunom. ; Epist. cxli, &c. 

5 Horn, in Pro v. t. ii, p. 100. 



The English Reformation. %33 

West,, from countries far remote, and regarding periods 
widely distant, is overpowering, he may consult the au- 
thor of the work, Be Divinis Nominibus, 6 Eusebius, 1 
St. Ambrose? St. Austin? and the Councils, which I shall 
refer to in the note below. 10 

4° Ecclesiasticus. Clement of Alexandria repeatedly 
refers to Ecclesiasticus, as an inspired writing ; u and Ter- 
tullian cites it as a portion of the old law ; 12 nor does either 
Origen or Cyprian doubt of its divine character. The 
former says : " Let us prove from the sacred writings, 
that the divine Scripture also recommends to us the study 
of dialectics, it being said in the wisdom of Jesus the Son 
of Sirach, ( the knowledge of the unwise is as words with- 
out sense.' " (Ecclus. xxi, 21 ;) 13 and the latter observes : 
" We are taught and admonished by the divine Scriptures 
thus : e Son, when thou comest to the service of God, 
stand injustice and in fear.' " (Ecclus. ii, 1.) S. Athana- 

6 De Div. Nomin. c. 4. 

7 L. vii, c. 12 ; 1. ix, c. 7 ; 1. xi, c. 14, Prcejp. Evang. 

8 Enarrat. in Ps. 1. 

9 1. ii, c. 8, de Doct Christ; 1. xvii, c. 20, de Civ. Dei; and 1. de praedest 
Sanct. c. xvi. St. Austin, vindicating his and St. Cyprian's use of the 
book of Wisdom, against the ignorance of some persons who would not 
admit the work to he Scripture, says, " Non debuit repudiari sententia 
libri Sapientise, qui meruit in Ecclesia Christi de gradu lectorum Ecclesise 
Christi tarn longa annositate recitari, et ab omnibus Christianis, ab Epis- 
copis usque ad extremos laicos fideles, poenitentes, catechumenos, cum 
veneratione divinse auctoritatis, audiri." — 1. c. 

10 See Concil. Sardicen, apud Theodoret, Hist. 1. ii, c. 8 ; Concil. Carthag. 
iii, c. 47 ; Concil. Triburiense, c. 34, et C. Nicsen ii, act. 4. 

11 Apud Euseb. H. E. 1. vi, 13 ; See Clement of Alex. 1. i, c. 8 ; Psedag. 
et 1. viii, Strom, p. 763. 

12 See Adv. Marc, p. 464; and Exhort, ad Cast. c. xii, p. 662. 

13 L. viii, contra Celsum. p. 410 ; and Homil. 9, in Ezech. 

14 De Mortal, p. 174, et de Ojpere et Eleemos. 



£34 The English Reformation. 

sins also cites it as Scripture : " Thou shalt not sup with a 
proud woman, nor shalt thou be familiar with an arrogant 
woman; for sacred Scripture says: ' He who toucheth 
pitch, shall be denied by it.' " (Ecclus. xiii, l.) 1 S. Basil 
thus refers to it : " The divine letters say, { Do nothing 
without counsel, &c.' " (Ecclus. xxxii, 24.) 2 We have al- 
ready seen what was the received canon of the sacred 
Scriptures in the time of Cyril of Jerusalem ; now we 
have to learn what was his own opinion relative to Eccle- 
siasticus. This saint was thoroughly acquainted with the 
book under investigation ; to it he often refers, and in 
one instance at least he calls it Scripture. " The Scrip- 
ture says, speaking of our souls, f he created in them the 
Science of the Spirit.'" — xvii, 6. 3 S. Hilary informs us 
that the Latins looked upon Ecclesiasticus as the work of 
Solomon, whilst both Jews and Greeks entitled it the book 
of Jesus the son. of Sirach ; and to it the Saint refers, in 
the same manner as he does to the fully recognized 
Scriptures. 4 What Epiphanius' opinion was, we have 
already seen in a previous extract : to another passage 
from one of his writings, I will limit my references to his 
works. "Since the Divine Scripture reprehends us, saying : 
e Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and 
search not into things which are too deep for thee.' ' 
(Ecclus. iii, 12.) 5 John Maxentius adopts similar lan- 
guage : " It is necessary to contend for the truth to the 
effusion of blood; especially as the Divine Scripture 
thus admonishes us, and says — s For thy soul be not 
ashamed to say the truth ; and even unto death fight for 

1 L. de Virgin, as also Orat. i, contra Arianos, torn, i, p. 319. 

2 In reg.fusius tract, reg. 104. 3 Cat. xvi, p. 181. 

4 In Ps. 140, et alibi passim. 5 In Anchorato, c. xii. 



The English Reformation. 235 

justice.' "— (Ecclus. iv, £4, 33.) 6 Even St. Jerome enti- 
tles it Divine Scripture in one of his letters : " The 
Divine Scripture says — e a tale out of time is like music 
in mourning.' " — (Ecclus. xxii, 6.) 7 And the Fathers of 
the Ephesine Synod, with whose authority I shall close 
this critical survey, call the work Divinely inspired Scrip- 
ture : "Do nothing without counsel, says the Divinely 
inspired Scripture." — (Ecclus. xxxii, £4.) 8 

5° Baruch. Circumstances have forced me already to 
draw the reader's attention to the fact, that the writings 
of Baruch, the scribe of Jeremias, are very commonly 
annexed by the Fathers of the Church to those of Jere- 
mias : and from this fact it may be easily inferred that 
the divinity of this portion of Holy Writ was uniformly 
admitted. I will, however, adduce a few specific proofs 
in order to satisfy the scholar on this head. 

St. Irenaeus calls Baruch an inspired prophet, and his 
writings are distinctly named the word of God. " And 
therefore, (he says) have the prophets who have received 
the prophetic gift from the same word (Koyog) foretold his 
advent in the flesh, by which the commixture and commu- 
nion of God and man was effected in accordance with the 
will of the Father • the word of God foretelling from the 
beginning, that God should be seen by men, and that he 
would converse with them on earth" (Baruch iii, 38.) 9 
And later, this same writer quotes as the work of Jeremias 
the whole of the fifth chapter of Baruch. 10 

6 Prsef. dial. c. Nestorianos. * Epist. xxxiv, ad Julianum. 

8 Epist. ad Synod. Pamphylise, act vii. For further information the 
reader may consult Cornelius a Lapide, prcef. in flecks.; Widenhoffer, 
vol. ii, 366-8; and Natalis Alexander, torn, iii, p. 691-2, Ed. 1786. 
9 Adv. hser. 1. iv, c. 37. 10 Ibid. 1. v, c. 35. 



£36 The English Reformation. 

Tertullian cites the work as the production of Jeremias : 
" Let them remember too, Jeremias, who thus writes, now 
shall ye see the gods of the Babylonians of gold and silver 
and wood carried away, &c." l — (Baruch, vi, 3 ;) and St. 
Cyprian refers to it in a similar manner : " Also in the 
prophet Jeremias we read, This is our God, and there shall 
no other be accounted of in comparison of him," (Baruch 
iii, 36 ;) 2 as does also St. Hilary. 3 St. Clement of Alex- 
andria, is another witness : u Most beautifully does the 
divine Scripture elsewhere say, directing its words to those 
who are lovers of themselves and arrogant, l Where are the 
princes of the nations, and they that rule over the beasts 
that are upon the earth, that take their diversion with the 
birds of the air, &c." (Baruch, iii, 16, 18.) 4 St. Athanasius 
often cites the work as that of Jeremias, and from the 
words " this is our God " derives a proof of Christ's 
divinity ; 5 and Lactantius also quotes as Scripture the 
adduced words, " this is our God." 6 As we have already 
seen, St. Cyril of Jerusalem considered Baruch to be a 
sacred writer, 7 and he, like almost all the Fathers, refers 
to and cites Chap, iii, 38. In the list of sacred books pub- 
lished by the Council held at Laodicea, about the middle 
of the fourth century, Baruch occurs after Jeremias. In 
the address of St. Cyril of Alexandria at Ephesus, the 
famous text of Baruch is thus adduced : " Take as wit- 
nesses the holy prophets ; does not Baruch nearly pointedly 

1 Adver. Gnosticos p. 595. 2 L. ii, c. 6, Testim. p. 206. 

s In Ps. 68, n. 19. * L. ii, Pzedag. c. 3. 

5 De Sane. Trin. Dial, iii ; as also see 1. ii, c. Arianos, for an extract 
from Baruch, c. iv. 

e L. iv, p. 346. 

7 See also his Cat. xxi, in addition to previous references. 



The English Reformation. 231 

demonstrate the Emmanuel, for he says, ' He is our God, 
and none other shall be compared with him.' " 8 Although 
St. Gregory of Nazianzum, in the catalogue of the sacred 
books which he drew up, does not expressly name Baruch, 
yet that he looked upon this as a portion of Scripture, and 
as divine, is certain. He too, refers to Baruch iii, 38, as 
written by the most approved of the prophets? As St. 
Austin observes, 10 though the words cited were by some 
ascribed to Baruch the scribe of Jeremias, they were more 
commonly cited as those of Jeremias. In fine, this work 
is adduced as Scripture by the illustrious and learned 
prelate St. Epiphanius : " These are the twenty-seven 
books which are counted as twenty-two, together with the 
Psalter, and the pieces which are united to Jeremias, 
namely, the Lamentations and the Epistles of Baruch, 
although these Epistles are not found amongst the Jews" 11 
For further information, I refer the reader to Coccius, 1. vi, 
art. xi, and Sylvius de Controv., p. 49. 

6° Esther. As the learned de Rossi observes, " So 
great is the connexion between the protocanonical portions 
of Esther, and the deuterocanonical additions to this book, 
that the denial of the latter necessitates the denial of the 
former also." 12 For 1° as he justly states, many things are 
said in the book itself to have been written, which really 
occur in the additions, as certain passages of the book of 
Esther are commonly called. The truth of this observa- 
tion may be easily seen by comparing c. iv, 8, with xiii, 

8 In Homilia Ephesi hdbita. 

9 See Orat. xxxix ; as also Orat. xxxvi. 
io De Civ. Dei. 1. xviii, c. 33. 

11 De Ponder, et Mens. t. ii, n. 5, p. 163. 

12 Specimena Variarum Lectionum, p. 117. 



238 The English Reformation. 

1, 7 • iv, 15-7, with xiii, 8, 18 ; ii, 23, and vi, 1, 2, with xi 
and xii, 4 ; and viii, 9, 10, with xvi. 2° These so-called 
additions are found in the edition of the Septuagint, as also 
in the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and other ancient copies of 
the sacred Scriptures. 3° Josephus, 1 even, cites a letter of 
Assuerus, perfectly agreeing with that contained in these 
additions : and further, he supplies us with an analysis of 
the speeches of Mardochseus and Esther, as also with an 
account of Esther's visit to Assuerus, and their conversa- 
tion, and with a history of the royal letters sent by Aman 
to the princes of the provinces, relative to the murder of 
the Jews. How in the face of all this, Calmet 2 can have 
fearlessly stated that Josephus says not a word about these 
additions, is to me perfectly unintelligible. 4° These addi- 
tions exist in three most ancient MSS., one of which be- 
longed to Pius VI, the second to the Vatican, and the third 
to the Ambrosian Library. In the MS. of Pius, these 
additions are written by the same hand and in the same 
character as the preceding portions of Esther, and at the 
end of the work occurs a clause, which uniformly indicates 
the sacred character of such works, viz., the number of 
verses, &c, contained in the book. In the Vatican MS. 
these distinctions of sacred Scripture are wanting ; but in 
that of Milan, the points, accents, and masoretic epigraphe 
occur. The writing however of the additions is not quite 
so large as that of the preceding portions of the inspired 
instrument. 5° Finally, the Fathers refer, and continually 
too, to these additions. 

Origen, replying to Africanus, who had refused, it would 
seem, to admit the history of Susannah and other portions 
of Daniel, because these were not received by the Jews, 

1 Antiq. Judsei, 1. xi, c. 6. 2 Prol. in Esther. 



The English Reformation. 239 

makes the following important and useful observation: 
"The two sections at the end of the book of Daniel, 
which are spread throughout the Church of Christ, are 
not the only portions of the Old Law which are not in 
the Hebrew text, since even about two hundred verses, to 
speak by guess, are omitted from another part of Daniel, 
and are consequently excluded by Aquila, although in- 
serted in the Septuagint version, and in that of Theodo- 
tion. Nor is this peculiar to Daniel; since the same 
omissions are found in many of the other sacred writings. 
... .In the book of Esther, for example. .. .neither the 
prayer of Mardochai, nor of Esther. . . .are received by 
the Jews, neither are the letters of Aman respecting the 
massacre of the Jews, nor of Mardochai, in the name of 
Artaxerxes, freeing the same people from the sentence of 
death." He eventually endeavours to shew how these 
passages had been struck out of the Hebrew copies ; and 
the omissions he ascribes to the wickedness of the Jews, 
who wilfully destroyed them for political reasons. 3 St, 
Cyril was a great admirer of the Septuagint. As we have 
already seen, he recommends that edition to the Christians 
of his times, and personally he believed that that edition 
was inspired. Since then, we know, that in the Septua- 
gint, the additions of Esther occur, we are forced to 
conclude, that they were received by Cyril as well as by 
Origen and others, as Holy Scripture. 4 

The fathers of the Western Church are equally explicit. 
(See S. Hilary, Prsef. in Ps., S. Jerome, in Prol. galeato, 
and Prsef. in Esther, &c.) And indeed, since these chap- 
ters, now expunged from Protestant versions, uniformly 
occurred in the old Vulgate, and not as now, disjointed 

3 Ad Afric. p. 222, i See Cat. iy, previously cited. 



£40 The English Reformation. 

and separated, but in their natural order, (the present 
allocation was the work of St. Jerome,) it is plain that the 
Latins could not have admitted any portion of the book of 
Esther without admitting the entire work. 1 Thus the 
Greeks who followed the Septuagint, and the Latins who 
adopted the ancient Italic version, equally admitted the 
rejected chapters. See too St. Chrysostom, horn, iii, ad 
pop. Antioch, August. Epist. 199, ad Ediciam, &c, and 
Bellarmine, 1. i, c. 7, de Verho Dei. 

But who was the author of the so-called additions ? 
That Mardocheeus wrote some portion of the book of 
Esther is plain from ix, 20, and xii, 4 ; and it is equally 
clear from the Septuagint, that Esther too had a share in 
the composition of the work. To me, it seems more than 
probable, and this is likewise the opinion of De Rossi, 
p. 128-9, 1. c, that formerly another work of Esther ex- 
isted. This may be proved from the following words of 
c. ix, 32, as literally translated from the Hebrew — " And 
the word of Esther confirming the things of those lots, was 
written in the hook." Obviously these words refer not to 
this, but to some prior writing, and thus they have been 
ordinarily understood by both Jewish and Christian 
writers. This work, as we gather from references made 
to it in viii, 9, and ix, 20, of Esther, contained the letters, 
&c. that were written by Mardochseus, which were widely 

1 The Church tolerated this alteration in the chapters, in order that the 
faithful might know, what was and what was not in the Jewish Bible. 
With regard to the seven last chapters, the inspiration of which Catholics 
defend, and heretics deny, it may be as well to observe, that chapters 
xi, and xii, belong strictly to the beginning of the work ; xiii, xiv, xv 
and xvi, to the middle, and chapter x, to the end, as is clear from the 
Septuagint, from the Vetus Itala, from St. Jerome's observations on 
chapters xi, xii, &c, as also from the book itself. 



The English Reformation. 241 

circulated among the Jews, as is evident from the last 
reference. To procure copies of such letters involved no 
difficulty ; and it will not be rash to suppose that the 
seventy, having made themselves thoroughly acquainted 
with their history, translated and eventually inserted them 
in proper chronological order in that version which Christ 
and his Apostles ordinarily cited, which many fathers 
of the Church, as Austin, &c, believed to have been 
inspired, and which was in general honor throughout 
the Eastern and Western Churches. 2 

2 It may be expected of me to say a few words about this edition of the 
Sacred Scriptures. Its history briefly told is this: 1° In the time of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, who succeeded, it is calculated, to the crown of 
Egypt, 285 years before the birth of Christ, the Jews settled in Egypt, 
being very ignorant, and without, it is said, any version of the law which 
they professed, were forgetting even the rites and practices of their 
religion. To obviate this inconvenience, as well as to enrich the library 
of his sovereign, Demetrius Phalereus, who was then Ptolemy's librarian, 
proposed to call to Alexandria, a number of Jews, perfectly conversant 
with both the Greek and Hebrew tongues, in order to translate into the 
former language, the Scriptures. Ptolemy assented. He wrote to the 
Jewish High Priest, begging of him to send to Alexandria six persons 
from every tribe, distinguished for their learning and integrity, who 
might undertake the task of translation. To gain his end, he restored to 
liberty all the Jews who were then slaves in Egypt, he himself paying 
the price of their ransom, which amounted to the enormous sum of 660 
talents. The letter was carried to the Pontiff by one Andrew and 
Aristeas, from whom we are said to have derived a full account of this 
translation, who went from Egypt laden with presents for the High 
Priest, Eleazarus. The Pontiff readily granted the favour asked. Seventy- 
two persons went to Alexandria, and thence they were sent to the Island 
of Pharos, where in seventy-two days they are said to have accomplished 
their task. The translation was read in the presence of the Hellenistic 
Jews, and of other competent witnesses, and by them was declared to be 
a faithful version of the inspired original. Such is an abridged account 
of the history of the pseudo- Aristeas. 

2° But fama vires acquirit eundo: with time the particulars and details 

M 



£42 The English Reformation. 

7° Daniel. We will now proceed to the examination 
of the evidence in favour of those passages of Daniel 

regarding this version increased, and swelled out into wonderful impor- 
tance. By Philo, we are informed, (in vita Mosis, 1. ii,) that the Holy- 
Spirit dictated every word to each writer ; and hence it was found, at 
the conclusion of their labours, that all the translations agreed to the 
letter. Justin Martyr enters more into details. He tells us that each 
writer had a separate cell, and that all communication between the tran- 
slators was entirely cut off. (Apol. ii.) St. Epiphanius is less liberal; 
for he assigns to these translators only thirty- six cells. (De Pond. n. 6.) 
3° To separate truth from falsehood may not be very easy in this case ; 
but I will observe, 1° that the Fathers, &c, seem, as a body, to admit 
the general accuracy of the statement ascribed to Aristeas. It is admitted 
by Justin M., 1. c ; by Clement of Alexandria, 1. i, Strom. ; by Tertullian, 
c. xviii, Apol. ; by St. Irenaeus, 1. iii, c. 25, adv. haer. ; St. Cyril of Jerus. 
cat. iv; St. Epiphanius, 1. c; St. Augustin, 1. xviii, c. 42-3, de Civ. Dei et 
1. ii, c. 15, de Doct. Christ. ; as well as by Philo, 1. c ; Josephus, Antiq. 
Judaic. 1. xii, c. 2 ; and Aristobulus, apud Euseb. de Praep. Evang. 1. xiii, 
c. 7. To reject such a weight of authority without evidence would be 
more than rash ; and counter evidence does not exist ; for I cannot sup- 
pose that such as Didacus a S. Antonio has adduced, vol. i, p. 472, can 
have weight with any reasonable critic. To me, Serrarius, Bonfrere, 
Yossius, Usher, Walton, Morinus, Nicolai, and numerous other writers, 
seem to have adopted a wiser course in defending, than have BeUarmine, 
Scaliger, Yalesius, Hody, Yandale, Dupin and Simon, in opposing the 
general truth of the narrative just adduced. That a translation was 
made in the reign of Ptolemy, and under very extraordinary circum- 
stances, and with extraordinary results, appears indisputable ; though I 
am prepared to say with St. Jerome — " I know not who first fabricated the 
story of the seventy cells at Alexandria," (Praef. in Pent, et 1. ii, n. 25, 
cont. Rufhrmn,) and that "tJie icriters conferred togetJier, and did not 
prophesy." (Loc. cit.) Again, I think that the seventy-two did not 
translate all the Hebrew Canon, but only the law, or the five books of 
•Moses. And I adopt this conclusion on the authority, 1° of Josephus, and 
of the Jews in general, 2° of Aristeas; and 3° of St. Jerome, who justly 
observes, that whilst the Pentateuch agrees literally with the Hebrew, 
the other books do not. Nay more, in the other books, the same phrases 
are differently translated, from what they are in the books of the Law. 
See St. Jerome on this head, Praef. Quest. Hebraic in Gen., and in. c. ii, 



The English Reformation. 243 

which have been recklessly rejected by the Anglican 
Church, namely, 1° the hymn of the three youths ; 2° the 
history of Susannah ; and 3° the history of Bel and the 
Dragon. Not only are these passages of holy writ 
rejected, but one of them at least has been treated with 
words of scorn hardly equalled by those used by the Jews, 
when they cast away Christ, and insulted him on the 
cross, or adopted by Voltaire in the last, and the Ration- 
alists of Germany in this century, in reference to the 
Scriptures in general, or those very books which Protes- 
tantism still clings to, as divine. Rejection and strong 
language, prove nothing of themselves ; and of this, Angli- 
cans should be mindful when they resort to violent and 
abusive expressions, whilst opposing either this written 
revelation of Bel and the Dragon, or the peculiar dogmas 
of Catholicity. At all events, we shall soon see, that the 
Fathers wrote like the Catholics of the present day, and 
not as Protestants ; and that they could not have approved 
of the violent and indecent phraseology in which the 
followers of Elizabeth indulge. 

1° Hymn of the Three Youths. Tertullian calls this a 
portion of Daniel. " To whom incorporeal things sing 
praises in Daniel." 1 St. Cyprian calls this song, Daniel's, 2 
and further, Divine Scripture — " this the Divine Scripture 
declares, Then those three, it says, as if with one mouth, 
sung a hymn, and blessed the Lord." 3 Theodoret inter- 



Mich. The contrary opinion has been ably refuted by Dupin, 1. i, c. 6 ; 
Montfaucon in Hexap. Orig. c. iii, 8; Hody, &c. Before our Saviour's 
coming, all the books were translated which form the Catholic Scriptures, 
but when, we cannot distinctly state. 

1 Adv. Hermog., p. 302. 2 Exhort., Martyr., p. 96. 

3 De Orat. Dom., p. 156. 



244 The English Reformation. 

prets this, as well as the other portions of Daniel, as also 
does St. Athanasius. The author of the Synopsis, believed 
this to have been written by Daniel: "Daniel. . . .knew 
the works of God, when he said, All ye works of the 
Lord, bless the Lord." l St. Epiphanius, constantly refers 
to this hymn, and looks upon it as heaven-inspired." 2 
Basil speaks of those " who sung hymns to God from the 
fiery furnace." 3 St. Ambrose calls this, a prophetical 
hymn; 4 " and S. Augustin, who frequently cites the hymn, 
makes use of it in one place, in order to prove against 
the Manichees, that all things are good; for as he ob- 
serves, it is written, that " darkness and light praise the 
Lord." 5 What Origen's opinion was, the reader has 
already been told. 

History of Susannah, and Bel. I have placed both 
these histories under the same heading ; for in general, the 
Fathers who cite either of the histories, cite both. The 
disciple of St. Polycarp, St. Ireneus, distinctly refers to 
both passages, and calls both the work of Daniel. " Let 
them listen (he says) to the words of the prophet Daniel, 
O thou seed of Canaan, and not of Juda, beauty has 
deceived thee, and lust perverted thy heart." (Dan. xiii, 
56.) 6 And " who is like the God of the living, but God 
who is above all things. . . .The God whom the prophet 
Daniel proclaimed when the King of Persia asked him, 
saying, Why dost not thou adore Bel ? and he answered 
and said to him, Because I do not worship idols made 
with hands, but the living God." (Dan. xiv, S, 4.) 7 As 

1 Ad Serap., t. i, p. 170. 2 In Anchor, t. ii,p. 28, 32. 

3 De Spir. Sane, c. xxx. 4 Hexsemer., t. i, p. 2. 

5 L. de Nat. Boni. c. xvi. 6 Adv. Hser., 1. iv, c. 44, et passim. 

7 Ibid,, 1. iv, c. 11. 



The English Reformation. 245 

Tertullian considered the Hymn of the Three Youths to 
be divine ; so, too, did he look upon the two passages, 
the sacred character of which we are now establishing, as 
divine. The History of Susannah he admits in his book 
on the Soldier ; 8 and that of Bel in his work on Idolatry? 
Origen's letter to Africanus, 10 regarding the History of 
Susannah, contains, as Eusebius (H. E., 1. vi, c. 31) ob- 
serves, a full defence of the objected passages, and further 
shews the difficulties which follow from adhering simply 
to the Hebrew text. And in Horn, i, in Levit. he 
makes use of the following observations : " But it is now 
time, that we should apply the words of the holy Susannah 
against those wicked priests, — words which they indeed 
reject, casting out of the catalogue of the divine vo- 
lumes the history of Susannah ; but which we receive, 
and from which we opportunely argue against them." 
St. Athanasius calls both passages the work of Daniel : 
" And in Daniel, Susannah exclaimed with a loud voice, 
saying, ' O Eternal God, who knowest hidden things, &C.' 11 
" Daniel also said to Astyages : ' We do not worship idols 
made with hands, but the living God'": 12 and so too 
does St. Cyprian. 13 For further information regarding the 
authenticity of the history of Susannah, I refer the reader 
to St. Fulgentius, Quaest. ad Ferrandum, who cites xiii, 
42, 45, in proof of the divinity of the Holy Ghost ; to St. 
Chrysostom, who explains this history in two sermons; 

8 De Milite., p. 206. 9 De Idol., p. 174. 

10 See the passage already cited. 

11 Contra Arian. Orat. ii, t. i, p. 319. 

12 Ibid. Orat. iv, p. 483. 

13 Epist. xl, et de Exhort. Martyrii, p. 190. 



246 The English Reformation, 

to St. Hiliary, 1. iv, de Trinit. ; and to S. Epiphanius, adv. 
Hsereses., n. 30. 

8° Machabees. Origen thus speaks of this last work 
which we shall have thus specifically to defend : " That 
we may show, from the authority of Scripture, that these 
things are so, hear what is said in the book of Macha- 
bees, where the mother of seven martyrs exhorts one of 
her sons to endure torments. e I beseech thee, my son, 
look up to heaven. 5 " * St. Cyprian is equally explicit : 
" The divine Scripture .... admonishes, saying, .... ' fear 
not the words of the sinful man, for his glory shall be 
come as dung and worms'" — (1 Mace, ii.); 2 and his work 
"de Exhort. Martyrii" is one continuous citation of, or 
reference to the Machabees. St. Austin informs us, that 
though the Synagogue did not, the Church does receive 
the Machabees as canonical — " Maccabceorum libros non 
Judcei sed Ecclesia pro canonicis habet." 3 These words 
have been, as we have already seen, adopted by numerous 
other writers ; and they refer to an important fact — a fact 
to which former and actual belief bears evidence — to wit, 
the admission of books into the canon, which had not 
been previously recognised as divine Scripture. The pre- 
vious non-insertion of some divine writings into the canon, 
only shews, that at a given period, those works had not 
been sufficiently evidenced; whilst their admission into 
the canon, proves, that after the traditions of the Church 
had been sifted, their real character was fully established, 

1 De Princip. 1. ii, c. 1. See too his Exhortation to Martyrdom, where 
he calls the Machabees, previously cited, Scripture. 

2 Epist. lv, ad Cornel. 

3 L. xviii, c. 36, de Civitate Dei. 



The English Reformation. 247 

by that authority which God had appointed to guide men 
into truth, even unto the end of time. 

In conclusion, need I tell the well-informed reader of 
the New Testament, that constant reference is there made 
to what are called the Apocryphal works ? For example, 
Wisdom vii, 26, is referred to in Hebrews i, 3 ; and 
Wisdom xv, 7, in Romans ix, 20, 21 ; and again, Wisdom 
xiii, 1, in Komans i, 20; Ecclesiasticus xi, 19, xiv, 18, 
and xlii, 1, are respectively referred to by St. Luke xii, 19, 
by St. James i, 2, and St. James ii, 1 ; and vestiges of the 
Machabees occur in the Epistle to the Hebrews, &c. 

If the reader will bear in mind, what was the belief 
of particular Churches at first, of Churches, which, owing 
to circumstances, had been best enabled to test the cha- 
racter of the sacred writings; if further, he will remember 
how, after the flow of ages, when evidence had been sifted 
in the most careful manner, the Church dispersed through 
the world, convinced of the character of the disputed 
books, admitted them to be sacred and canonical ; if again, 
he will attend to the origin and antiquity of the Septua- 
gint, and the Vetus Itala, not to refer to numerous other 
editions of the inspired writings, as well as to the fact of 
Christ and his Apostles appealing, and distinctly refer- 
ring to the first-named version, whilst the fathers cited 
and commented the latter ; or if, in fine, he will consider 
how distinctly the universally recognized inspired Scrip- 
tures suppose the inspiration of the deuterocanonical 
writings, he will readily admit the correctness of the lists 
of the Scriptures drawn up by the Pontiffs and Bishops 
already named, and the appropriateness of the definition 
which was framed by the fathers assembled at Trent, 
and publicly agreed upon, on the 8th of April, 1546. 



248 The English Reformation. 

From what has been said, it follows : 1° That the canon 
of the New Testament was not admitted in its entirety 
from the beginning. 2° That in point of fact it could 
not have been so admitted, owing to the difficulty which 
existed of intercommunication, and of obtaining evidence 
enough of the origin and character of several of the sacred 
writings. 3° Owing to these difficulties, several writings 
of the New Testament were not only doubted of, but 
absolutely repudiated, by several fathers, nay more, by 
considerable divisions of the Church. 4° These differences 
were drawn nearly to a close towards the end of the fourth 
century ; Africa, the child of Rome, leading the way to 
unity. The fathers there bore testimony to the truth, 
relative to the canon, as also to another dogma, namely, 
the necessity of recurring to Rome for approval of their 
decision. De confirmando isto ca?ione (the 47th) Trans- 
marina Ecclesia consulatur, is the important note ap- 
pended to the African canon. Rome approved of the 
decision ; for the African canon was well known already, 
and acknowledged by the See of Peter ; and by this see, 
the information was rapidly communicated to the rest of 
Christendom. 5° The grounds of the acceptation of the 
canon were not these ; the books now acknowledged were 
always looked upon by all as divine ; but this was the 
basis of the common belief: the Church having examined 
the question, has agreed that such books are, and such 
are not divine. Testimony was sifted with all human 
care ; after this, the decision was given, and in this deci- 
sion God was heard speaking, but speaking through that 
instrument, which was to convey the truth to all nations 
and to all times. As long as the Church forbore thus to 
speak, so long was there hesitation; but after she had 



The English Reformation. £49 

spoken, obedience became a duty, as sacred as religion 
itself — religion, in fact, was involved in the act of obedi- 
ence. This last point is one of vast importance, and the 
reader will do well to recall to mind what the fathers, 
whose writings have been cited, have said on this head ; 
namely, Origen, in his Epistle to Africanus ; Cyril of 
Jerusalem, in his Fourth Catechetical Instruction; St. 
Dionysius of Alexandria, and Eusebius, H. E. 1. iii, c. 35, 
and 1. vii, c. 25; and St. Austin, De doctr. Christiana, 
1. ii, n. 12. From the Church, and the Church only, do 
they affect even to derive the Scriptures; without this 
authority they would have either doubted of, or as St. 
Austin says, have actually repudiated them. 1 

The sixth Article of Anglicanism is clearly absurd, 
when examined critically. Protestants accept the canon 
of the New Testament on authority; and in this they 
trust implicitly. But admitting Church authority — a 
living authority — for individuals do not analyse, do not 
examine each link in the chain of authority — in respect 
to one portion of the canon, how can they reject it in 
reference to another — to the canon of the Old Testament. 
Is the Church only truthful in respect of a part of the 
inspired word? The fathers did not think so. They 
assert that therefore they admitted Tobias and Machabees, 
Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom, and the Gospels themselves 
to be divine writings, because they were recognized as 
such, by the Church. Let the reader remember the 



1 When the decision of Trent was promulgated, those who had previ- 
ously entertained opinions somewhat at variance with that decision, at 
once yielded assent, on the very grounds just established. 

M 2 



£50 The English Reformation. 

words of St. Augustine, " Ego vero Evangelio non cre- 
derem, nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicse commoveret auctoritas," 
as also his other strong expression regarding the book 
of Machabees ; let him further call to mind the language 
of Origen, Jerome, and the catechetical addresses of St. 
Cyril of Jerusalem — their language is a fair representation 
of the opinions of those distinguished prelates who pre- 
ceded, as well as of those who succeeded them, — and it will 
be impossible to entertain a moment's doubt on this head. 

On what grounds, do Protestants receive some books 
of the Old Testament, and reject others? This matter is 
deserving of an attentive consideration. If it can be 
shown that all is uncertainty, on their own principles, 
in reference to even the protocanonical works, and that 
every argument favours and proves the Catholic canon, 
which establishes the authority of several of the books of 
the Old and New Law, it will be admitted by all believers 
in the written word, that the Protestant canon is essen- 
tially and radically defective, and as such must be cor- 
rected by the decisions of the fathers of Trent. Now all 
this can be shown to demonstration. 

1° We are completely ignorant of the extent of the 
first canon of the Jews, as also of the grounds on which 
this canon was formed. That the first canon of the Jews 
consisted of the Pentateuch only, is a received opinion; 
but the belief is merely conjectural, based on statements 
of doubtful certainty, and on a fact which proves abso- 
lutely nothing : — namely, that the books of the law were, 
and are alone, received by the Samaritans. Nor is another 
supposition, notwithstanding its general admission, better 
supported by evidence. It is nearly taken as granted 



The English Reformation. 251 

by writers of this age, as well as of former times, that a 
catalogue of the sacred books was drawn up by Esdras, 
soon after the Babylonian captivity ; though on this point 
ancient authority is sadly scanty. Much less positive, 
however, are the particulars regarding the mode or the 
circumstances of the formation of the Esdrine canon. Some 
suppose that the sacred books were lost during the years 
of trouble and distress which the Jews had to endure, 
and that to Esdras, during the space of forty days — the 
analogy intended is obvious — God again communicated 
the law. Though many great names, both ancient 1 and 
modern, might be cited in advocacy of this inspiration, 
there is no proof whatever of its truth: at the best, it 
appears to be based on no higher authority than that of 
the fourteenth chapter of the so-called Fourth book of 
Esdras — a work which Catholics and Anglicans equally 
reject- — whilst it would seem to be distinctly contradicted 
by the author of the Machabees, 2 who is the first to inform 
us of the attempt made during the time of Antiochus 
Epiphanes, to destroy the sacred records : and Prideaux 3 
has adduced strong proofs of the zeal of Josias to preserve 
the sacred writings by transcription. 

Others, despairing of establishing this first opinion, 
which advocated such an extent of destruction and of 
inspiration, have adopted another theory : it is this. Es- 
dras, according to them, collected together and collated 

1 S. Irenseus Adv. Hser. I. iii, c. 21 ; Tertull. de Habitu Mulieris, c. iii ; 
Clement of Alex. 1. i, Strom. ; S. Basil, Epist. xlii. 

2 1 Mace, i, 59, 60 ; see too 4 Kings xxii, 8, and 2 Paral. xxxiv, 14. The 
sacred Scriptures were in the temple obviously in the time of Helcias. 

3 History of the Jews, part i, b. v. 



252 The English Reformation. 

the existing copies of sacred Scripture, and eventually 
informed the Jews which were the sacred writings to be 
admitted. They further assure us, that from him we 
derive the triple division of the sacred Scriptures into 
the Law, the Prophets, and the Ketubim or Hagiographa; 
and that by him were added those chapters or portions of 
chapters which were required for the completion of cer- 
tain books — such as Genesis xii, 6, xxii, 24 ; Exodus xvi, 
35, 36 ; Deut. ii, 12, iii, 14, and the last chapter of this 
book ; Proverbs xxv, i, &c. 2 Nay more, we are seriously 
told that Esdras substituted the Chaldaic for the Hebrew 
character, and modernized throughout the names of places; 
and as if this was not a task sufficiently onerous for one 
man, to him they ascribe the introduction of the vowel 
points. One thing, however, is wanting, unfortunately, 
to the perfection of this system : the semblance of a proof? 
Proofs being wanting, I shall not, as I should have other- 
wise done, show that even under such a system, no Pro- 
testant can rest satisfied, on his own principles : for even 
if Esdras had been all, and more than all, that he has 
been represented to be by his admirers, we have yet to 
see, how the Jews had evidence of his character, and on 
what grounds they assented to his declarations relative to 
the inspiration and incorruption of those writings, which, 
down to the period of Esdras, had not been considered 

2 Even Prideaux assigns some of the above passages to Esdras ; whilst 
others ascribe them to Simon the Just, &c. &c. Chacun a son gout, is the 

rule here, as in other things. 

3 For a very lengthened, able, and truly eloquent exposition of the 
various systems connected with this subject, T refer the reader to my 
learned Brother's work, entitled, " An Examination of the Distinctive 
Principle of Protestantism," pp. 57-8, &c. 



The English Reformation. 253 

as canonical. What evidence did Esdras receive from the 
Jews ; and how did he proceed in the examination of that 
evidence ? Was it half as great in favour of the new 
canon then received, as was adduced in proof of the canon 
approved of in 397 ? and was Esdras as clearly designated 
by heaven, to be the means of arriving at the knowledge 
of a great dogmatical truth, as was the Church which has 
sealed the sacred canon, but which Protestants dare to 
deny and to oppose. But let this pass ; for as yet no one 
proof has been given of the origin of the canon of the 
Old Law, of or its extent, at the period to which I have 
hitherto had occasion to refer. 

But the difficulty does not end with the name of Esdras. 
Let us allow that Esdras did, and authoritatively too, edit 
the sacred canon, we have still to learn who appended 
those books and passages of books, which appeared after 
the demise of Esdras. For example, in Nehemiah and 
the Paralipomena, there are genealogies brought down 
at least to the days of Alexander the Great and Darius 
Codomannus ; and further, there seems to be internal 
evidence in the prophecy of Malachias to show, and this 
is admitted by Gray 4 and others, that this inspired writer 
lived after Esdras. By what authority was this book, as 
well as the books of Esdras, and the additions just referred 
to, added to the canon ? Was it by virtue of some decla- 
ration of the great Jewish council; or was it in conse- 
quence of some individual's authority ? Let the answer 

4 Compare Gray's account of the times of Ezra and Malachias, in his 
work on the Old Testament, Cf. pp. 208 and 507. St. Jerome makes 
Malachias contemporary with Darius Hystaspes, Prsef. in xii, Prophetas. 
Consult also the Encyclopaedia Britann. article Bible. 



254 The English Reformation. 

be what it may, this will be clear, that the canon might 
be, and was enlarged ; and further, that it was enlarged 
by those of whom Protestants know absolutely nothing ! 
What prevented its after enlargement, if sacred volumes 
were written, and evidence was offered in their favour, 
as great at least as could be adduced in favour of Esdras 
or of Malachias. 

2° That a fixed and well-known canon did exist among 
the Jews of Palestine, at the time of our blessed Saviour, 
is clear ; for we find that they all received the same books, 
a coincidence which could not be the effect of mere chance 
or of individual research. These books are said to be 
twenty-two in number, but in fact they were thirty-nine 
in all. For what reason, we know not, but it is a fact, 
that it was the wish of the Jewish writers to confine the 
nominal amount of the sacred books to the number of 
the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, which, as I have 
already insinuated, is twenty-two. Hence, it was requi- 
site to reckon several books as one. This custom was 
afterwards very generally followed by the fathers of the 
Church, when speaking of the older canon ; and hence, 
however much they may differ in their divisions and sub- 
divisions of the thirty-nine books, the gross amount is 
ordinarily found to be the same, twenty-two. 

3° It is not equally easy to assign the exact number 
of the books which formed the canon of the Hellenistic 
Jews, who dwelt in Egypt in the time of the Ptolemies, 
and for whom was framed the venerable version in Greek, 
by the seventy-two scholars sent to Alexandria by the 
Jewish high-priest. On the banks of the Nile flourished 
an enormous Jewish population. Thence colonies passed 



The English Reformation. 255 

to Rome and the cities of the Mediterranean, and to 
them, in course of time, was given the grace of Chris- 
tianity. Their version contained all the books of the 
Catholic canon, and to the nature of them, they were to 
bear evidence everywhere. They would, indeed, state 
which were canonical and which only sacred, which had 
already been decreed to be divine, and which still were 
in need of this decision : and thus the seed of orthodoxy 
was sown, of which the Church in good time reaped the 
fruit. That there were some books of venerable character 
but of doubtful inspiration among the Jews, as afterwards 
there were among the Christians, books whose divine cha- 
racter could only be admitted after a careful examination, 
and on the declaration of some competent authority, is 
easily proved by the following testimony of Josephus. 

"We have not an innumerable multitude of books 
among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another 
(as the Greeks have), but only twenty-two books, which 
contain the records of all time, and are justly believed 
to be divine. And of them, five belong to Moses, which 
contain his laws and the tradition of the origin of mankind 
till his death : this time was a little short of three thou- 
sand .years. But as to the time from the death of Moses 
till the reign of Artaxerxes, King of Persia, who reigned 
after Xerxes, the prophets who were after Moses wrote 
down what was done in their times in thirteen books. 
The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and 
precepts for the conduct of human life. 

"It is true our history has been written since Artax- 
erxes very particularly, but has not been esteemed of the 
like authority with the former by our forefathers, because 



£56 The English Reformation. 

there has not been an exact succession of prophets since 
that time. And how firmly we have given credit to these 
books of our own nation, is evident by what we do ; for 
during so many ages as have already passed, no one has 
been so bold as either to add anything to them, to take 
anything from them, or to make any change in them ; but 
it is become natural to all Jews, immediately and from 
their very birth, to esteem these books to contain divine 
doctrines, and to persist in them, and if occasion be, 
willingly to die for them, &c." l 

From this testimony then it appears, 1° That the Jews 
were in possession of several venerable writings, of which 
the character was not adequately known ; 2° That it was 
believed that these works might, under some circumstances, 
be entitled to greater veneration, when their authenticity 
and sacred nature had been still further demonstrated ; 
and 3° That the proof of their authenticity and sacredness 
was derivable from the testification of some of the pro- 
phetical line. Here, then, are all the elements, required 
by us, for a definition, and an addition to the canon. 
There are venerable writings, writings allowed to be at 
least sacred ; and these are kept with the greatest care, 
and handed down from age to age as venerable, and pos- 
sibly divine. When Christ comes, the prophet indeed ap- 
pears, who can pronounce on the nature of these writings; 
and that he did speak, and his Apostles after him, is 
evidenced at first, by the assent of the individual pastors 
of the Church whose testimonies we have adduced, and 
afterwards by the declaration of the Church, which is " the 

1 Joseplras, 1. i, c. Appionem, Whiston's translation ; Cf. Antiq. Jud. 
1. xi, c. vi, s. 13. 



The English Reformation. 257 

'pillar and foundation of truth" and with which Christ and 
the Spirit of Truth, uninterruptedly ahide. Josephus 
adopts that same tone and those very expressions which 
the ecclesiastical writers make use of, as the reader has 
seen, in reference to some books of the New Testament, 
Whilst some are emphatically called Scripture, others are 
handed down as doubtful; and of these it is said, that 
their extrinsic character is widely different from those 
universally received; and such an expression, whether 
used by Josephus or by the fathers, was the only orthodox 
phrase to be used. Age follows age, and as time flows 
on, we see the tradition in favour of the divinity of the 
disputed works strengthening, and at last, a world believes 
as certain what was once doubtful, and reverences as 
divine what had been previously only considered vene- 
rable. Compare the language of Josephus and of the 
fathers ; examine the means referred to by each, as re- 
quired for the attainment of a full knowledge of the 
fact of the number of the works entitled to be considered 
Scripture, and it will be seen, that in language and all 
particulars, they are exactly similar : that it is impossible 
to admit the New Testament canon without admitting the 
Old, as approved of at Carthage and afterwards at Trent; 
and that all objections against the latter tend to cast more 
than a doubt upon even the twenty-two books of the 
original Jewish canon. 

It is deserving of remark, that Josephus no where men- 
tions which are the books which were received when he 
wrote. All that we can learn from him is this : that the 
books of Moses were five in number ; that there were 
thirteen in the second class of Scripture, and four only in 



258 The English Reformation. 

the third ; but the names of the books are no where given. 
We may presume that he admitted the books which the 
Articles seem to look upon as the old Jewish canon : but 
this assumption is devoid of proof. Indeed, as Cardinal 
Perron has proved long ago, Josephus no where refers to 
the book of Job ; and there is nothing to prevent us from 
believing, that all the sapiential books of the seventy may 
have been included under the following description of the 
writings of the favoured king Solomon : " He composed 
fifteen hundred books of odes and poems, three thousand 
books of parables and similies ; he wrote the history of 
plants, and also of cattle and beasts of the earth, water 
fowl and the birds of the air." — L. viii, Antiq., p. 202. 

These observations adequately answer the object of this 
somewhat lengthened investigation of the nature and num- 
ber of the sacred books, and of the means adopted both 
by Jews and Christians to discover which were divine 
writings, and which merely human compositions. I will, 
however, before quitting this important subject, direct 
the reader's attention to the reference made in the Articles 
to the authority of S. Jerome, and to the constant state- 
ment of modern and more ancient writers relative to the 
catalogues which some of the Fathers of the Church drew 
up at various times, of the sacred volumes. I shall not 
indeed say much on either point ; for as to the latter it 
has been shown in detail what opinions the fathers held on 
the disputed books of the Jewish and Christian canon ; 
and an answer has in fact been already supplied to the 
remarks made on, and the inferences drawn from, the 
words of S. Jerome by the compilers of the Elizabethan 
Articles. After citing what Catholics call the proto- 



Tlie English Reformation. 259 

canonical works of the Old Testament, the writers of the 
sixth Article thus continue: " The other books (as Hierom 
saith) the Church doth read for example of life and 
instruction of manners ; but yet it doth not apply them to 
establish any doctrine. Such are these following : The 
third book of Esdras, the fourth book of Esdras, the book 
of Tobias, the book of Judith, the rest of the book of 
Esther, the book of Wisdom, Jesus the son of Syrach, 
Baruch the Prophet, the Song of the three children, the 
history of Susannah, of Bel and the Dragon, the prayer 
of Manasses, the first book of Maccabees, the second book 
of Maccabees." Now what inference would the framers 
and the imposers of the Articles wish the public to draw 
from the words of S. Jerome ? This : that because at one 
time certain works were not received as canonical, there- 
fore such works could not be at any after period admitted 
as canonical. Let the reader test this conclusion in this 
way; let him state that according to S. Jerome the East 
rejected the Apocalypse, and the West the Epistle of S. 
Paul to the Hebrews, in the middle of the fourth century, 
and thence infer the non-canonicity of these two books in 
any after age, and what will be said ? That this conclu- 
sion is fair ? No, that it is unfair ? Then let the objec- 
tors solve their prior argument, and reject their own con- 
clusions, for if this conclusion relative to the books of the 
New Testament be illogical, assuredly the inference drawn 
from a similar premiss regarding the Old Testament cannot 
be logical. The most that can be deduced from this state- 
ment of S. Jerome is this, that until certain books were 
proved to be inspired, such works could not be cited as 
conclusive authority in favor of any dogmatical question 



260 The English Reformation. 

dependent on that authority. This statement is too plain 
to be denied. But the question to be settled is this; can 
works of questionable inspiration at one period, and con- 
sequently of possibly questionable authority, eventually 
be looked upon as certainly divine, and absolutely true ? 
That the Fathers of the Church thought they could, is 
plain from what has been already stated. Cyril and 
Origen, Ambrose and Augustine, and afterwards provincial, 
national, and oecumenical Councils, asserted and openly 
this proposition ; and admitted as divine, writings which 
at a former period had been doubted of, and even partially 
denied, according to their own shewing. But was St. 
Jerome, too, of this same opinion ? Assuredly he was ; 
for in his observations on St. James' Epistle he makes use 
of the following language. u James wrote but one Epistle 
which is one of the seven Catholic Epistles ; which too, is 
said to have been published by another in his name, but 
has, gradually, in process of time, acquired authority." x 
And his observations bearing on this point are even more 
conclusive in his remarks on the Epistle of St. Jude. 
" Jude has left a short Epistle, which, because of a quota- 
tion from an apocryphal book of Enoch, is rejected by 
many ; however it has, by length of time and custom 
obtained authority, and is reckoned amongst the Holy 
Scriptures." 2 TThatever may have been the earlier 
opinions of St. Jerome in regard of several of the deutero- 
canonical writings, it would seem that in his later years he 
adopted the common belief relative to the canon of sacred 
Scripture. Assuredly he, 3 who stated what is mentioned 

i De V. I. c. ii. 2 De V. I. c. iv. 

3 Prsef, in lib. Sal. 



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in the book of Homilies, did not hesitate eventually either 
to entitle the books of Wisdom/ Ecclesiasticus, 5 and 
Machabees, 6 divine Scripture, or Scripture, or to appeal to 
them in proof of those dogmas which he was anxious to es- 
tablish. These observations will enable the reader to form 
a more correct notion of St. Jerome's opinions than could 
have been derived from the mere words of the sixth 
Article, 

If we turn from St. Jerome to the catalogues of the 
sacred writings framed during the earlier ages of Chris- 
tianity, we shall feel equally convinced of the futility of 
the statement made by Protestants, that the canon of the 
Anglican Church is identical with that of primitive Catho- 
licism. 1° Melito, whose object it was simply to state 
which were the works universally admitted, 7 omits altoge- 
ther the books of Esther and Nehemias. 2° Though 
Origen presents to us a catalogue of the Jewish books, he 
at the same time, as we have already seen, strenuously 
maintains the divinity of other books and parts of books, 
which were rejected by the Jews. 8 3° The Fathers at the 
Council of Laodicea, admit Baruch and make no mention 
of the Apocalypse. 4° St. Cyril of Jerusalem includes 
Baruch and excludes the Apocalypse. 5° St. Gregory of 
Nazianzum omits, like Melito, Esther from his list. 6° The 
author of the Synopsis likewise omits Esther, whilst he 
admits Baruch. 7° Epiphanius receives Baruch. 8° The 
Apostolical Canons enumerate Judith, three books of 

4 Comm. in Hier. c. xviii, t. ii, p. 587. 
5 Epist. xxxiii, ad Julian. 6 Comm. in Isai. c. xxii, t. ii, p. 131. 

7 See Eusebius, H. E. 1. iv, c. 26. 

8 See his Epistle to Africanus already cited. 



262 The English Reformation. 

Machabees, with, the addition of the Wisdom of Sirach for 
the younger people. 

The reader will not fail to remember the proofs already 
given in detail, of these discrepancies. To sum all up in 
one word : Melito, and the Council of Laodicea, and the 
Apostolical Constitutions, and Origen, Epiphanius, and St. 
Gregory of Nazianzum, present to us catalogues all differ- 
ing from that which the Anglican system, and the fautors 
of Anglicanism, 1 assume to be truly divine; And since, it 
is customary with modern writers to state that the divinity 
of the Protestant Canon of the Old Testament is established 
by constant references in the New Testament to the in- 
spired writers of the former Law, it may be as well to 
observe, that there are at least eleven of the protocanonical 
writings to which such an assertion is inapplicable ; for 
neither Judges, nor Ruth, nor the Paralipomena, nor 
Esdras, nor Esther, nor Ecclesiastes, nor the Song of 
Songs, nor Abdias, nor Sophonias, nor the first or fourth 
book of Kings are once referred to, throughout the entire 
of the New Testament ; whilst several of the deutero- 
canonical writings are not indistinctly referred to, as the 
reader has already seen. 

From what has been said, it follows : 1° That the Pro- 
testant canon has no support from antiquity, as a fair 
representation of the belief of the Christian Church of the 
number of the sacred writings. 2° That it is in direct 
opposition to all the opinions entertained by the Fathers, 
whether we consider them individually, or as representa- 

1 See the unscholarlike observations of Biimet and Pretyman, on the 
Sixth Article. It really appears wonderful to me, how such writers could 
have ever obtained a reputation among even their own party ; for their 
writings are full of inaccuracies and palpable misstatements. 



The English Reformation. 263 

tives of the various sections of the Church of which they 
were the leaders and distinguished guides. 3° That the 
principles, advocated in all former ages, justify the present 
canon of the Catholic Church — for the Fathers readily 
accepted as divine whatever consentient testimony evi- 
denced to be such ; and 4° That the only way of arriving at 
certainty in a matter of this importance, is an unhesitating 
reliance on that teaching authority, which Christ himself 
established, and blessed, and secured against error, in order 
that men might believe and no longer " be tossed about 
by every wind of doctrine." 



264 



<%pto % Hktjr. 



The Solibiblical principle — its difficulties and 
contradictions. 



CONTENTS. 

The Solibiblical principle false— opposed to the teaching of Christ, his 
Apostles, and the Church of all ages, and in direct opposition to the 
antisymbolical origin and character of the Sacred writings. — Mode of 
acting of Christ, the Apostles, and the Church. — How many Apostles 
wrote, and why they wrote. — The generative principle of faith in the 
Apostolic and after times. — Testimonies of the Fathers on this head. 
The Solibiblical principle unavailable for more than 1400 years. — The 
Scriptures decide nothing about their own meaning — this evidenced by 
the Sects which pretend to believe the Bible. — Selden's observations and 
Henry the Eighth's restrictions. — The Scripture full of difficulties — 
cause of this. — Proposed limitation of this principle. — Useless as a prin- 
ciple of faith and unjust in Anglicanism. — Examination of the texts 
ordinarily adduced in favour of the Bible being the only " Rule of Faith" 
— The Biblical system justly opposed by Catholics. — It is irreconcilable 
too with numerous tenets believed in by the English Church. — Instances 
in proof. — Motives of the adherence of Catholics to the authority of the 
Church. 

What St. Hilary observes with regard to the Scriptures 
is very true : " Apices sine crimine sunt, sensus in cri- 



1 L. ii, de Trinit. 



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said of tlie interpretations of this text ? If ever there was 
a document, or a code of laws, variously explained, such a 
document and such a code, is that commonly called the 
Sacred Scripture. Every country boasts of its commenta- 
tors, and though the number of these is legion, we are far 
from being justified in adopting the conclusion that the 
line of interpreters has ceased. Indeed, if we may be 
allowed to form an opinion on this head, we should say, 
judging from the publications which at present inundate 
Germany, America, and our own country, that the days of 
biblical criticism are only really beginning : manuscripts, 
travels, archceological researches, and railroads, 2 not to 
speak of the results of private talent and study, all offering 
their quota of information, and egging on numbers to pub- 
lish results which are calculated to sink into insignificance 
the writings of Luther and Calvin, of Beza and Zuingli, 
of Capellus, Simon, Bos, Reland, Michaelis, Scheuchzer, 
Rosenmuller, and of hundreds of others whose names are 
familiar in England to the biblical reader ; for I deem it 
unnecessary to name such writers as Whitby, Brown, 
Clarke, D'Oyly and Mant, and Blomfield, Burton, and 
Trollope. 

Notwithstanding the multitudinous writings which have 
treated on the Scriptures, and the avowals of scholars, that 
the sacred, volumes are full of difficulties, 3 difficulties which 
can only be critically surmounted by the possession of such 
an amount of knowledge, of languages, history, and ancient 

2 The Papers of the other day inform us that the burial place of Daniel 
has just been discovered. 

3 Even from the statements of Home and Carpenter, in their intro- 
ductory works on the Scripture, it is plain that great acquirements are 
necessary for a knowledge of the sacred writings. 

N 



266 The English Reformation. 

usages, as few indeed either do or can possess ; — notwith- 
standing the contradictory conclusions both with regard to 
mere facts and to dogma which ancient and modern writers 
have drawn and still do draw from the unexplained letter ; 
notwithstanding the antagonistic sects which have sprung 
up from this diversity of comment, — sects which are the 
practical evidences of the difficulties which are contained 
in the sacred word, — it is still stated, and this is a first 
principle, an indisputable truth with all modern separatists 
that the Bible is the only rule of faith, and that nothing is to 
be received as divine truth which cannot thence be proved. 
" The Bible and the Bible only," this is the Protestant 
battle cry ; this is the word uttered when an onslaught is 
to be made on Catholicity, and with this word the enemies 
of Rome hope to confound the Catholic. Because the 
latter will not admit this principle — because he has re- 
course to an authority for the meaning of the text as well 
as for the text itself, therefore is he insulted : he is held 
up as afraid of being tried by God's word ; and his creed 
is denounced as a human figment and man's tradition ! He 
is looked upon and pointed at as an enemy of the Bible : — 
and on this account both his creed and himself are despised. 
The Catholic, however learned, talented or good, forfeits 
his caste in society, because he will not adopt the principle 
of division and call it the principle of unity, and allow that 
to be the means of arriving at faith, which experience 
proves to be the basis of every conceivable kind of heresy. 
Mine will be the task to expose the incorrectness, and in- 
deed palpable absurdity of the Protestant idea, in the 
remainder of this chapter. 

1° It has been already shown in chapter ii, what was 
the original constitution of the Church, and what the sys- 



The English Reformation. 267 

tern of religious polity prescribed by the Divine Founder 
of Christianity. The Church was established for ever ; 
its doctrines were for ever to be propagated and perpe- 
tuated ; and this propagation was a task consigned to the 
ministerial line, of which the first links were the Apostles. 
This teaching body was invested by Christ with his own 
prerogatives. To it was given the Spirit of truth; to it 
was promised infallibility and ceaseless perpetuity, and 
with it Christ was ever to be — the founder and the perpe- 
tuator of the heavenly system. To the second chapter, 
in which what I have already briefly stated is distinctly 
proved, I again remit the reader. Teaching, was the 
mode appointed for the preservation of truth; and 
hence the Apostles so emphatically say : " Faith cometh 
through hearing, and hearing through the word of God." l 
" Remember your Prelates who have spoken the word of 
God to you." And, " Dearly beloved, believe not every 
spirit, but try the spirits, if they be of God: because 
many false prophets are gone out into the world. He 
that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, 
heareth us not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and 
the spirit of error." 3 At the bidding of Christ, 4 the 
Apostles went forth and taught the nations ; they preached 
to Jews and to Gentiles, and the sound of their words was 
echoed throughout the world. Nor were their endeavours 
unblessed. Thousands were converted as St. Peter spoke; 
and the other Apostles were the instruments of salvation 
to Parthians, and Indians, and Ethiopians ; to the inhabi- 



1 Romans x, 17. 2 Heb. xiii, 7. 

3 1 John iv, 1,6. * Matt, xxviii, 18, 20. 



268 The English Reformation. 

tants of Greece, and to those subject to the Roman Em- 
perors, 1 as they preached the divine word. 

So little did the Apostles believe in the Protestant system, 
that few of them — only five — wrote a single line of Scrip- 
ture ; seventeen out of the twenty-seven books which form 
the New Testament being the compositions of men, who 
were not members of the Apostolic College. And is there 
a word in their writings, expressive either of the discon- 
tinuance of the system of teaching, by means of which 
Christianity had been so successfully propagated, or of an 
intention to commit to paper the entire doctrinal code, 
committed to them by Jesus Christ for the purpose of thus 
spreading far and wide among Jews and Infidels, the 
knowledge of Christianity. If the sacred writers record 
how Christ proceeded in the work of converting, and by 
what means Apostles propagated Christianity, they inform 
us that Jesus Christ taught, and that Apostles taught, 
and that this mode of spreading the faith was to be un- 
varying ; they tel] us, in a word, that the Apostles and 
their successors were to preach and teach — preach and 
teach as the representatives of Christ — that mankind was 
bound to hear and obey this divinely appointed line, and 
that thus and thus only was religion to be perpetuated. 
Ere Apostles die, they bid others perform faithfully the 
task of preaching committed to them; to others, they 
impart the form of sound words to be communicated 



* See on the Apostolic Wanderings and Labours, Zaccaria's Dissert., 
vol. iii; as also Neander's " Planting of the Churches." By referring to 
this German writer, I would not have it thought that I by any means 
approve of his theory. This I utterly repudiate. I refer to him as a man 
of considerable information. 



The English Reformation. 269 

fearlessly, and under every kind of circumstance ; and if 
reference be made to the cause of the appointment of 
ministers, the cause assigned will be this : " That hence- 
forth we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and 
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the wicked- 
ness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in 
wait to deceive." 2 These statements exactly correspond 
with the fact of the original propagation of Christianity ; 
they confirm a truth already pre-existing and well known 
— how, the reader has already seen. 3 These positions, 
then, prove that not by writings, not by private inferences 
and deductions from writings, was Christianity to be 
spread and believed in : it was to be spread by the teach- 
ing of the ministry, and to the end of time this declaration 
was to be true — "faith cometh through hearing; " and 
not as Protestants will have it, through seeing, and through 
merely individual research. Man was to be taught re- 
ligion, in the same way as he was to be taught any other 
branch of knowledge, but with this difference : whilst 
other teachers communicate information in reference to 
merely human sciences, the Apostolic line is to communi- 
cate inspired truth; and whilst others, even as a body, 
may go astray in their advocacy of literary or scientific 
pursuits, the successors of the Apostles are secured against 
the possibility of such deflections from truth, whilst enun- 
ciating the doctrinal and moral code of our Divine 
Saviour. 

To the careful reader, the words made use of by Christ, 
when he commissioned his Apostles to go forth and teach, 
will of themselves appear perfectly conclusive against the 
Protestant supposition. These words regarded all teachers; 

2 See Eph. iv, 11, 14. Hn chapter ii. 



270 TJie English Reformation. 

the duties of the ministry were distinctly fixed ; and the 
Apostles, who owed their position to Christ, had no power 
whatsoever to alter his appointment. If it be further 
remembered, that as a matter of fact, all the Apostles did 
preach, whilst only five wrote ; and that those who did 
write, acknowledge the commission and command to preach 
and to teach, without once stating that they had a command 
to commit a line to paper, in reference to dogma, 1 our 
observations will appear more and more conclusive, in 
respect to the matter in hand. 

And from the character of the sacred writings, and the 
times in which they appeared, equally conclusive evidence 
may be derived of their anti-symbolical and anti-articular 
nature. The Acts of the Apostles, for example, were 
published in order that the Christians might have a faith- 
ful record of what took place in the Church after the 
ascension of Christ, especially in the persons of St. Peter 
and St. Paul ; and a similar motive induced St. Luke to 
record what he had heard from faithful witnesses relative 
to the sayings and doings of Jesus Christ. St. Luke 
writes simply, as far as his intentions were concerned, 



1 I have here guarded myself against all cavil, by the words, in 
reference to dogma. The Apocalypse, alone seems to refer to a command; 
hut then this is rather a prophetical than a doctrinal work. As is clear 
too, even a command to write, would in no way militate with the original 
command to teach orally the doctrines of Christianity. The two com- 
mands are widely disparate in character. From the command to write, 
it would be unfair to infer either that all was written which Jesus Christ 
had revealed, or that if all had been written, each individual was enabled 
and obliged to interpret the writings for himself, and thence to derive a 
fixed and unerring code of belief. I have made this plain observation, in 
consequence of the unscholarlike cavil of Palmer. See his " Church of 
Christ," vol. ii, p. 3 ; c. i, Obj. 3, p. 18. 



The English Reformation. £71 

as a faithful historian. He writes too, not to teach any 
person, ranch less the world at large, the fa*ith, but he 
writes to believers, in order that they may have a faithful 
history of previous events. Numbers were engaged in 
writing spurious and false records : 2 these St. Luke had 
heard of; and wishing to supply the believer with correct 
information relative to the Saviour and his Apostles, he 
determined on writing his two important works, the Gos- 
pel which bears his name, and the Acts of the Apostles. 
Obviously, however, he writes, as I have observed, to 
and for believers ; to and for, in a word, those who already 
professed the divine law of Jesus Christ, in consequence of 
the Apostolic teaching, and not for those who either re- 

2 The number of apocryphal works written in the early ages is truly 
surprising. We have the Letter of Christ to Abgarus, King of Edessa, 
Euseb. H. E., 1. i, e. 13 ; and another directed to a priest named Leopas, 
in the city of Eris; a Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus ; the Proto-Evangelium 
of St. James ; the Gospel of Nicodemus ; the Six Epistles of St. Paul to 
Seneca; the Acts and Gospel of St Andrew, Eusebius, H. E., 1. iii, c. 25; 
Epiphanius hcer. xlvii and lxi, and Gelasius in Dec; the Gospel of the 
Twelve Apostles, Origen, Comm. in Luc. ; the Gospel of Barnabas, Gela- 
sius in L.; the writings of St. Bartholomew, Pseudo-Lion, de Theol. 
My st. Gelas., I.e.; the Gospel according to the Egyptians, Clem. Alex. 
1. iii, Strom., Uierom. Prcef in Matth., Epiph. hcer. xlii, n. 2; the Gospel 
of Eve, Epiph. hcer. xxvi, n. 2 ; the Gospel to the Hebrews, Euseb. H. E., 
1. iv, c. 22; the Gospel of Jude, Epiph hcer. xxxviii; of Judas Iscariot, 
Iren. adv. hcer. 1. i, c. 35 ; of Matthias, Euseb. U. E. 1. iii, c. 25 ; and of 
Marcion, Tertull. adv. Marcion, 1. iv, c. 2 ; the Gospel of Perfection, Epiph. 
Hcer. xxvi ; of the Scythians, idem. hcer. lxvi ; of Thaddaeus, Tatian, 
Yalentinus, and of Truth, Irenceus adv. hcer. 1. iii. Besides these, we 
have the Acts of St. John; those used by the Manichaaans ; the Acts of 
Paul and Thecla^ besides several other writings circulated under the name 
of St. Paul; not to mention numerous other works honoured with the 
name of Sacred Scripture. The curious reader may satisfy himself on 
this interesting subject, by consulting the second volume of Jones' 
learned work on the Sacred Scriptures. 



272 TJie English Reformation. 

jected Christ or had not heard of him. A similar observa- 
tion is applicable to the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. 
Mark. Under peculiar circumstances, and for the purpose 
of gratifying certain parties, each of these Evangelists 
penned his Gospel, as we are informed by Eusebius. 
Passages out of the writings of this Father of ecclesiastical 
history, in proof of this assertion, have been already pre- 
sented before the reader. Nor is a very dissimilar origin 
to be assigned to the Gospel of St. John. At the request 
of those who were already Christians, and in consequence 
of accidental circumstances, he was induced to pen his 
Gospel. Eusebius (H. E., 1. iii, 24, and vi, 14) informs 
us, and the statement is confirmed by St. Jerome's autho- 
rity, (De Scrip. Eccles., et Prsef. in Matth.) that the 
Bishops as well as the faithful of Asia earnestly entreated 
John to write down what he had so often taught them by 
word of mouth. The former author likewise says, that 
the beloved disciple having discovered many omissions of 
important events preceding and subsequent to the "Im- 
prisonment of the Baptist, in the writings of the other 
Evangelists, wrote his Gospel as a kind of supplementary 
volume to the three Gospels which had been previously 
published, and more or less circulated. Another reason 
is assigned for the writing. Already had several here- 
siarchs arisen, 1 who had even dared to attack the divinity 
of our Lord. Among these early enemies of the divinity 
were Cerinthus, and Ebion, and the Nicolaites. These 
St. John undertook to confound ; and in the most sublime 
and energetic language, he solidly established the divinity 
of the Word. If, again, we turn to the Epistles, we shall 
still more clearly see that their origin seems accidental, 

1 Iren. adv. hser. 1. iii, to 11. 



The English Preformation. 273 

occasioned by individual wants, or local circumstances; 
and that there is nothing to shew that the writers looked 
upon themselves as either tracing out the full doctrinal 
code of Christianity, or providing records which were to 
guide the Church in all after ages. For example, the 
Corinthians were guilty of breaches of charity; and 
among them there was a convert who had dared to sin 
even with his father's wife. St. Paul writes an Epistle 
to condemn both the general uncharitableness, and the 
incestuous union. Does St. Paul leave another in Crete, 
to govern the infant Church there established ? He 
writes, in his anxiety for its welfare, a letter of instruction, 
full of wise and important suggestions. A servant leaves 
his master, and St. Paul sends him back, with a letter 
supplicatory of pardon. Enemies rise up against the 
Church, and St. Jude writes a hortatory Epistle to the 
Christians, in order to encourage them to perseverance in 
the faith which they had received. In fine, St. John had 
heard with delight of the kindness which Gaius had shown 
towards the Christians, and the result is a congratulatory 
letter, full of expressions of regard and thankfulness. To 
sum up these observations in one sentence : the Epistles 
were, in their origin, rather of personal and local, than 
general and Catholic interest; they were written for the 
benefit of the believer, and not for the conversion of the 
the infidel. They are, abstracting from their inspiration, 
exactly such letters as our prelates write at the present 
hour, and have written in every age, to the faithful, es- 
pecially to the charitable and virtuous, or the unkind and 
faulty individuals, committed to their care. 

"We have already had occasion to notice two facts utterly 
at variance with the Protestant belief relative to the soli- 



274 The English Reformation. 

biblical system ; of which the first is this : the canon of 
Scripture was not fixed till the close of the fourth century 
in any considerable portion of the Church. If the books 
of Scripture were actually unauthorized, how could the 
members of the Church either have derived their religion 
from them, or have believed that they were the divinely 
constituted means, for discovering and propagating the 
one system of faith. And yet, the reader will not fail 
to remember, that the four first centuries are called em- 
phatically, by Protestants, the ages of faith, the period 
of doctrinal purity; they are the ages which, they say, 
they are willing to follow in matters of doctrine. I lay 
no emphasis on this latter assertion, for it is notorious 
that Grabe, and numbers of others who have given their 
attention to the- teachings of the fathers, admit that the 
Mass was looked upon as a sacrifice, that the saints were 
invoked, and the dead prayed for, from the eailiest period 
— though Anglicanism rejects these doctrines and practices 
of Catholicity ; but I draw the reader's attention to the 
admitted orthodoxy of the first ages, in order that he may 
see that religion flourished before the Protestant principle 
was even possibly true, before the Bible could be a rule 
to faith; and that if it must be admitted that the world 
did eventually abandon the truth, as utterly and entirely 
as the framers of the Homilies believed, or affected to 
believe, this admission regards a period posterior to the 
settlement of the canon of the Scripture, when, owing 
to the altered circumstances of the times, agreement on 
this head, had become more feasible than it had been 
previously. Having treated this matter fully, I shall at 
once proceed to the second fact referred to. The fathers 
admitted, on the authority of the Church, the Gospels, 
as well as the other portions of Holy "Writ. St. Austin 



The English Reformation. 275 

positively affirms this to be true in his own regard, and 
that lie was not singular is clear, from the writings of 
Cyril and Jerome, and of numerous other writers whose 
opinions have been already adduced. Thus the Church 
was held up as the pillar and support of truth. To her 
even the most learned were indebted for the very letter 
of Scripture ; and receiving from her, without limitation 
or restriction, what they were to consider to be the written 
word, can it be supposed that they would eventually ques- 
tion her authority, reject her teaching, and declare that 
she had erred, and constitute themselves the judges of 
doctrine and morality ? This, Anglicanism and Anglicans 
did and do ; but did the fathers do so ? No : and in proof 
of this, it were easy indeed to adduce volumes of evidence. 
They looked upon the Church as the expounder, as well 
as the preserver, of the text. In fact, taught Christianity 
before the sacred pages were put into their hands, they 
already believed, in virtue of the teaching of the Church, 
before they knew a line of Scripture : and the faith which 
they had received, served them as a guide in all their ex- 
planations and developments of the meaning of the written 
word. "Where the gifts of God are placed," says St. 
Irena^us, " there we ought to learn the truth (from those), 
with whom is that succession of the Church, which is 
from the Apostles, and that which is sound and irreprove- 
able in conversation, and unadulterated and incorruptible 
in discourse, abides. For they both guard that faith of 
ours in one God, who made all things. . . .and they ex- 
pound the Scriptures to us without danger, neither uttering 
blasphemy against God, nor dishonouring the patriarchs, 
nor contemning the prophets." — Adv. Hcer. 1. iv, c. 26. 
Tertullian's work On Prescriptions, turns completely 



276 The English Reformation. 

on this : that those only have a right to appeal to the 
Scriptures, who admit the Church's authority. The 

Scriptural contest/' he says, "is of no avail, except to 
turn either the stomach or the brain. That heresy receives 
not certain Scriptures, and if it receives some, it draws 
them to its own purpose by additions and subtractions ; 
.... and if it receives in some way the whole Scriptures, 
it nevertheless depraves them by diverse expositions. The 
spurious sense is as great an obstacle to truth as the cor- 
rupted text. What wilt thou gain, thou must be skilled 
in the Scriptures, when that which thou doest defend 
is denied, and when, on the other hand, that which thou 
doest deny, is defended. Thou shalt indeed lose nothing 
but thy voice in the contest, nor shalt thou gain anything 
but anger from the blasphemy. Therefore there must 
be no appeal to the Scriptures, nor must the contest 
depend on those things in which the victory is none, 
or uncertain, or at the best doubtful. For even though 
the debate on the Scriptures should not so turn out as 
to confirm each party, the order of things required that 
this question should be first proposed, which is now the 
only one to be discussed, i to whom belongs the very faith ; 
whose are the Scriptures ; by whom, and through whom. 
and when, and to whom, teas that rule delivered ichereby 
■men become Christians ; ' for wherever both the true 
Christian rule and faith shall be shown to be, there will 
be the true Scriptures and the true expositions, and all 

the true Christian traditions Should it chance that 

the truth be adjudged to all of us, who walk according 
to that rule which the Church has handed down from 
the Apostles, the Apostles from Christ, Christ froin God, 
the reasonableness of our proposition, which determines 



The English Reformation. 277 

that heretics are not to be allowed to enter upon an appeal 
to the Scriptures, whom we prove, without the Scriptures, 
to have no concern with the Scriptures, is at once made 
manifest." 1 Origen, commenting on these words of St. 
Matthew, li Behold, here is Christ" &c. says: "There 
will be many others too, who will be ready to say to the 
disciples, out of the divine Scriptures, adding thereto their 

own peculiar meaning, behold, here is Christ But 

as often as they bring forward canonical Scriptures, in 
which every Christian agrees and believes, they seem to 
say: behold, in the houses is the word of truth. But we 
are not to credit them, nor to go out from the first and 
the ecclesiastical tradition ; nor to believe otherwise than 
the Churches of God have by succession transmitted to 
us." 2 What were the sentiments of obedience and sub- 
mission of St. Austin to the Church, every ecclesiastical 
student knows. A few words from his voluminous wri- 
tings must, in such a matter, suffice. "When we read the 
divine books," he observes, "let us by preference select 
that, which, amidst the multitude of true meanings, ex- 
tracted from a few words, and defended by the soundness 
of Catholic faith, shall seem to have been certainly his 
whom we read; but if this escape us, (choose) that at 
all events, which is not in opposition to the context of 
Scripture, and which harmonizes with sound faith; but 
if the context of the Scripture also admits not of being tho- 
roughly handled and sifted, (select) at least that meaning 
only, which sound faith prescribes? For it is one thing 
not to discover what the writer chiefly meant, and another 
to wander from the rule of piety." With the authority 

1 L. de Prses. n. 37. 2 Series Comment, in Matth. n. 46. 

3 L. i, de Genesi ad Lit. n. 41. 



278 The English Reformation. 

of the celebrated Vincent of Lerins, I will conclude this 
part of my argument. In the second chapter of his ( ' Corn- 
monitor y," which is entitled, Reasons for annexing the 
tradition of the Catholic Church to the canon of Scripture, 
he says : <( But perhaps here a person may ask this question ; 
since the canon of the Scripture is perfect, and abundantly 
suffices for all things, what need is there for adding the 
authority of the Church's meaning. The reason is, be- 
cause all men do not take the sacred Scripture, on account 
of its very profoundness, in one and the same sense ; 
but this man interprets its language in this way, and that 
other in another way. So that it would appear that there 
might be drawn thence nearly as many opinions as there 
are expounders. For Novatian expounds in one ,way, 
Photinus in another, in another Sabellius, in another 
Donatus, in another Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, in 
another Apollinaris, Priscillian, in another Jovinian, Pela- 
gius, Celestius, in another, in fine, Nestorius. And there- 
fore, it is very necessary, on account of the many windings 
of such varied error, that the line of interpretations, both 
of Prophets and Apostles, be directed according to the rule 
of the ecclesiastical and Catholic interpretation." "But 
perhaps someone will here ask, whether heretics make 
use of the testimonies of divine Scripture ? Use it indeed 
they do, and with earnestness too. For you may see 
them fly over the books of Moses and of the Kingdoms, 
the Psalms, Apostles, Gospels, and Prophets. For whe- 
ther amongst their own party or others, in private or 
public, in conversation or in books, at table or in the 
streets, they hardly ever advance anything of their own, 
without endeavouring to overshadow it with the words 
of Scripture. Bead the works of Paul of Samosata, 



The English Reformation. 279 

Prisciilian, Eunomius, Jovinian, and of the other pests, 
and (you will find an infinite collection of examples), 
you will find hardly a page, which is not painted and 
bedaubed with sentences both of the Old and New Tes- 
tament. But they are to be specially avoided and dreaded, 
because they would hide themselves beneath the shadow 
of the divine law. For they are well aware that their 
foul savours would soon be agreeable but to few, if they 
were wafted forth in their natural state, and therefore 
they sprinkle them as it were with the perfume of God's 
word, that so he who would readily despise a human 
error, may not readily condemn the divine oracles. They 
therefore act like those who are preparing bitter draughts 
for little children ; anointing the brims first with honey, 
that unwary youth, first tasting the sweetness, may not 
fear the bitterness." — (c. xxxv.) After developing his 
subject, and likening these texts to the sheep's covering 
which the wolf may assume, in order to catch and destroy 
its prey, he thus proceeds : " But, what says the Saviour ? 
6 By their fruits shall ye know them. 9 That is, when they 
shall begin, not only to bring forward these divine words, 
but also to expound them, not only to glory in adducing, 
but also in interpreting them — then that bitterness, then 
that sharpness, then that rage, will be perceived; then 
that new poison will be exhaled; then will the profane 
novelties be laid open ; then may you first see, the hedge 
broken; then the boundaries of the fathers transferred; 
then the Catholic faith immolated; then the ecclesiastical 
dogma rent to pieces. Such were those whom the Apostle 
smites, in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, for such 
false prophets, he says, are deceitful workmen, trans- 
forming themselves into the Apostles of Christ (xi, 13). 



280 The English Reformation. 

What is e transforming themselves into the Apostles of 
Christ'? The Apostles alleged examples from the divine 
law; these likewise alleged them: the Apostles adduced 
the authorities of the Psalms ; these likewise adduced 
them : the Apostles cited sentences of the Prophets ; these 
also cited them. But when those things which were 
alleged alike, began not to be interpreted alike, then were 
the simple discerned from the crafty, then the sincere 
from the counterfeit, then the upright from the perverse, 
— then, in fine, the true Apostles from the false. And 
no wonder, he says, for Satan transformeth himself into 
an angel of light ; therefore it is no great thing, if his 
ministers be transformed as the ministers of justice (xi, 
14, 15). Therefore, according to the teaching of the 
Apostle Paul, as often as either false apostles, or false 
prophets, or false doctors, allege sentences from the divine 
law, by which, ill-interpreted, they endeavour to establish 
their own errors, there is no doubt but that they follow 
the crafty devices of their author; which he assuredly 
would never have invented, but that he well knew, that 
there is no readier way to deceive, where the fraudulency 
of nefarious error is covertly introduced, than to allege 
the authority of the divine words. But someone may say, 
whence is it proved that the Devil alleges examples out 
of the divine law ? Let him read the Gospels, wherein it is 
written, ' then the Demi took him up? &c. What will he 
not do to poor weak men, who assailed the Lord of Majesty 
himself, with testimonies ? If, says he, thou be the Son 
of God, cast thyself down ! Why so ? For it is written, 
quoth he, .... And if any interrogate any one of the 
heretics who is persuading him to these things, whence 
doest thou prove, whence doest thou teach that I ought 



The English Reformation. 281 

to cast aside the universal and ancient faith of the Catholic 
Church? at once he answers, for it is written. And 
forthwith he sets forth a thousand testimonies, a thousand 
examples, a thousand authorities, from the Law, from the 
Psalms, from the Apostles, from the Prophets, by which, 
interpreted in a new and evil manner, the unhappy soul 
may be cast headlong from the Catholic citadel, into the 
depths of the abyss of heresy." — (c. xxxvi, and xxxvii.) 
Next he refers to the boastings of heretics with regard to 
personal spiritual gifts, and then adds : " But someone 
may say, if both the Devil and his disciples, whereof some 
are false apostles, and false prophets, and false teachers, 
and all utterly heretics, do use the divine sayings, sen- 
tences, and promises, what shall Catholics, and the sons 
of our mother the Church, do ? In what way shall they 
discern truth from falsehood in the holy Scriptures ? They 
will, then, take very great care to adhere to that which, 
in the beginning of this Commonitory, we have said that 
holy and learned men had delivered to us, — they will 
interpret the divine canon according to the tradition of the 
universal Church, and according to the rules of Catholic 
doctrine. Within which Catholic and Apostolic Church, 
it is necessary for them to follow universality, antiquity, 
consent. And if at any time, a part has rebelled against 
universality , novelty has opposed antiquity, one or a few 
have fallen into error against the consent of all, or, at 
all events, of by far the greater number of Catholics, let 
them prefer the integrity of universality to the corruption 
of a part ; in which same universality, let them prefer 
the religion of antiquity to the profaneness of novelty; 
and likewise, in antiquity itself, let them prefer, before 
the rashness of one or of a very few, first of all the general 



282 The English Reformation. 

decrees, if there be any, of an universal council; next, 
if such, a thing be not, let them follow that which is 
nearest to it, that is, the statements of many and great 
masters agreeing together; which things, with God's help, 
being faithfully, soberly, carefully observed, we shall, 
without any great difficulty, detect all the mischievous 
errors of heretics as they spring up." 1 Assuredly the 
fathers, as all history proves, believed, because the Church 
taught; they interpreted the Scriptures, but where doc- 
trinal matters were treated of, these interpretations were 
not primarily resultant from a careful analysis of the text. 
As Vincent of Lerins tells us, these interpretations were 
a consequence of that faith which had previously been 
received from the Apostolic line of teachers. 

Again, it is plain that the Protestant principle renders 
the spread of Christianity during more than 1450 years an 
impossibility. According then, to this system, two things 
should be established ; l c It should be proveable that 
during that number of years, an amount of Bibles in any 
ways proportionate to the end to be attained, existed or 
could indeed have existed ; and 2 D That society as a body 

1 Commcrait. c. xxxviii, &c. Obviously the heretics of the early ages, 
acted like the heretics of the present times. Scripture, Scripture, nothing 
hut Scripture, was the cry then, as it is the cry now of all separatists from 
Catholicity. The wolves still wear the sheep's clothing, and the innovator 
hides his errors under the shadow of the divine word. There is nothing 
new in heretical action. Whoever will take up the tracts issued by 
heretical bodies, it matters not what they may be called, or who may be 
their parent, will see margin and text tricked with references to the sacred 
Scriptures. Indeed, the phraseology of these people is scriptural; and 
ever and anon, they intersperse Scripture, with ordinary narrative, in so 
strange a way, as to leave the hearer in wonder at the profaneness of the 
interpolations. 



The English Reformation. 283 

was able to read and appreciate those writings. Now not 
only are such propositions incapable of being proved, they 
are admitted on all hands to be false. Before the middle of 
the fifteenth century, there were indeed bibles in circula- 
tion, bibles in the original languages, and bibles too in the 
form of translations — but of these it might be justly asked, 
" Quid sunt hcec inter tantos " ? Laborious prelates, and 
monks and nuns, had written out with infinite care and 
industry, numerous copies of the Holy Scriptures. These 
had worked hard and well, but the process of writing was 
slow, and the materials and labour were expensive. Few 
comparatively could engage in the task of transcription or 
translation, and equally few could afford to purchase 
works which had entailed on others years of fatigue. 
Hence it happened that the Bible was comparatively a 
rare work, and hence again it was seldom if ever to be 
seen in the hands of the poor ; assuredly it was not in 
common use. Those who were wealthy might indeed 
purchase an occasional copy ; and those who lived within 
the cloister or episcopal monastery, could borrow the 
sacred volume ; but the bulk of the people was, and neces- 
sarily so, without the Scriptures. The Church, then as 
now, read, and interpreted portions of the sacred books. 
By teaching she made the Catholics of those days, as 
" wise unto salvation," as are the Catholics of the present 
times ; but Bibles were not, could not be placed in every- 
body's hand ; the pastors could not scatter them about "as 
thick as leaves in Vallombrosa," and tell the people to 
read and interpret for themselves. The people were 
essentially dependent on the Church ; and the effects re- 
sultant from the modern system are such, as to make 
every religious mind long for the former dependence ; for 



£84 The English Reformation. 

thus alone can blasphemy be silenced and unity of faith 
restored. 

A scarcity of books involves a scarcity of readers ; for 
men will not as a body acquire with pains an art which 
can never render them any corresponding service. Hence 
it will not be rash to suppose that not one in a hundred 
knew how to read either the Bible or any other book. 
Even in these days, when millions of works of all kinds 
and sizes are in circulation, of many of which copies can 
be readily procured for the mere asking, or even some- 
thing less, it is far from being true that all persons can 
read. It will be found indeed on examination that there 
are hundreds in every considerable town, and thousands 
in rural districts, who cannot do so, even if they chance 
to know the letters of the alphabet. Not one then in a 
hundred could have adopted the Protestant principle : as 
a form of Christianity, then, Protestantism was utterly im- 
possible. If it was ever possible, it became so after the 
art of printing had been discovered ; but not at any prior 
period. Protestantism then even thus viewed, cannot be 
identical with, or in any way a portion of primitive, early, 
or even mediaeval Christianity. It is a religion resultant 
from the defection and apostacy of a King, and dependent 
on the human invention of the art of printing. This is its 
historical, and this its highest origin. 

Since then, the founder of Christianity wished his reli- 
gion to be published to all nations ; since he attached His 
graces to the recognition of His creed, and uttered the 
most awful threat against such as did not believe ; since 
the poor and the unlearned were as much regarded by the 
Saviour as the rich and the well-informed; and since 
again preaching, oral instruction, was fitted for the attain- 



The English Reformation. 285 

ment of the prescribed ends referred to, whilst the biblical 
system was an utterly inefficient system in itself, as expe- 
rience has since proved, even if it had been, under cir- 
cumstances, a possible system, which it assuredly was not, 
it follows that the Bible was not appointed by our Lord, 
to be the means by which Christianity was either to be 
begun, or spread or perpetuated. 

Were it requisite, I could further show how different 
was the practice of primitive Christianity, from that pur- 
sued by Anglicans and Dissenters. Whilst these spread 
among infidels and disbelievers in their varying systems, 
the sacred volume, and seem in their annual reports and 
speeches to measure the progress of religion, by the 
spread of the Scriptures in translations characterized by 
inaccuracies resultant in some instances from an ignorance 
of the language of inspiration, and in others from an 
ignorance of modern vernacular tongues, the professors of 
Christianity in the early ages of the Church, guarded the 
divine word with the greatest care, preferring death to 
the delivery of the sacred volume into the hands of the 
infidel. " Not only was the Apostles' creed kept a secret 
from all but the initiated ; not merely was the Lord's 
prayer only suffered to be communicated to the baptized ; 
but the most watchful precaution was taken to preclude 
all but those already instructed, already baptized, already 
with their faith formed, from having the sacred books." 1 
But I shall not develope this matter ; for what has been 
said will surely have convinced every dispassionate en- 
quirer after truth. 

Hitherto our observations have mainly regarded the 
letter of the Scripture. Incidentally indeed, whilst stating 

1 See the eloquent letter of my Brother, On the Index. 



$86 The English Reformation. 

what was the rule of faith admitted by the fathers, I have 
made a few observations regarding the interpretation of 
the letter ; but to this point I now purpose to direct in a 
particular manner, the attention of the reader. 

As Bishop Walton in his celebrated Prolegomena, c. v, 
§ 6, well observes, ic e the word of God ' does not consist 
in mere letters, whether written or printed, but in the true 
sense." When therefore we speak of God's word, we do 
not, in point of fact, speak of any particular version of the 
Scriptures, or even of the original letter, but we mean, if 
we have any meaning at all whilst speaking, some definite 
statement made by the inspired writer. In other words, 
we appeal not to a sound, but to an idea ; not to a mere 
word devoid of meaning, but to a word full of signifi- 
cance, a word dear and sacred, because proceeding indi- 
rectly at least from the Almighty. Now, if this meaning 
be attached to the phrase s Word of God,' if in appealing 
to the Scriptures we appeal to definite statements of the 
Almighty, it will be at once seen that the far-famed ex- 
pression, ( the Bible, the Bible only,' is in the mouths of 
Protestants and Dissenters a sound, and nothing more. 
The Scriptures do not assign their own meaning. The 
words contain a meaning; more, they contain the meaning 
intended by God ; further, they express this meaning : 
but which of all possible meanings which may be attached 
to any or to all of the words, of the Scriptures, is the one 
meaning of revelation, that the Scriptures never declare. 
The written, lithographed, or printed words stand clearly 
before you ; though a hundred different interpretations be 
assigned to them, there they remain, unaltered, and un- 
changed; silent, notwithstanding the discrepancies and 
contradictions and blasphemies which may be indulged in, 



The English Reformation. 287 

in reference to their meaning. Kingdoms pass, dynasties 
cease, languages alter, customs change, commentary suc- 
ceeds commentary, sect sect, but the Word is at the end 
of all these fluctuations and alterations, what it was at 
their commencement : it is the same. The text which the 
believer in Christ admits, is the same which the Arian 
read and studied, and from which he drew his anti-chris- 
tian opinions. Augustin cited the Bible which was re- 
ceived by Pelagius ; and yet whilst the former affirmed 
the latter denied original sin : Cyril, the zealous defender 
of the unity of Christ and of the Qsorokog, did not admit a 
text of the Scriptures different from that which Nestorius 
appealed to; and if St. Cyprian endeavoured to prove from 
the Vetus Itala, the invalidity of heretical baptism, did 
not his successful and orthodox opponent, St. Stephen, 
recognise the accuracy of the texts cited by the prelate 
of Carthage. As Macaulay says, " All divine truth is, 
according to the doctrine of the Protestant churches, re- 
corded in certain books. It is equally open to all who, in 
any age, can read those books ; nor can all the discoveries 
of all the philosophers in the world add a single verse to 
any of those books. . . .A Christian of the fifth century 
with a Bible, is neither better nor worse situated than a 
Christian of the nineteenth century with a Bible, candour 
and natural acuteness being, of course, supposed equal. 
It matter not at all that the compass, printing, gun- 
powder, steam, gas, vaccination, and a thousand other 
discoveries and inventions, which were unknown in the 
fifth century, are familiar to the nineteenth. None of 
these discoveries and inventions has the smallest bearing 
on the question ; whether man is justified by faith alone, 
or whether the Invocation of the Saints is an orthodox 



£88 The English Reformation. 

practice. It seems to us therefore that we have no secu- 
rity for the future, against the prevalence of any theolo- 
gical error l that ever has prevailed In time past among 
Christian men. We are confident that the world will 
never go back to the solar system of Ptolemy. .. .But 
when we reflect that Sir Thomas More was ready to die 
for the doctrine of tr an substantiation, we cannot but feel 
some doubt whether the doctrine of transubstantiation 
may not triumph over all opposition. More, was a man 
of eminent talents. He had all the information on the 
subject that we have, or that, while the world lasts, any 
human being will have. The text, ' This is my Body,' 
was in his Testament as it is in ours. The absurdity (!) 
of this literal interpretation, was as great and as obvious 
in the sixteenth century, as it is now — no progress that 
science has made, or will make, can add to what seems to 
us the overwhelming force (!) of the original argument 
against the real presence. We are, therefore, unable to 
understand why what Sir Thomas More believed respect- 
ing Transubstantiation, may not be believed to the end of 
time by men equal in ability and honesty to Sir Thomas 
More." 2 These observations are very just, as far as they 
regard the results of bible -reading. The Bible is not 
progressive — and it allows itself to be turned to any un- 
holy purpose. Even the Devil used it, as well as modern 
sectarians, for the attainment of his ends. He cited it as 
fairly, and applied as well as the generality of self-inspired 
interpreters do : should I be stating an untruth, and acting 
unfairly towards the enemies of a teaching Church, if I 

1 In fact, what is Protestantism, but a revival of dead and buried 

heresies ? 

2 Review of HanJce's Popes, pp. 7, 8, 9. 



The English Reformation. 289 

even said that the demon was fairer in his references and 
more pointed in his applications than they are or ever 
have been ? And need I refer to the conduct of the Jews ? 
Did they not attempt to meet our Saviour's appeals by 
adducing the Scriptures ? Did they not out of them urge 
the most horrid accusations, and by them justify their 
rejection of the Messias ? 3 

What was done by demons, Jews, and early apostates, 
was imitated — the imitation was a necessary result, a con- 
sequence immediately flowing from the rejection of the 
Church, and the adoption of the new theory, — by 
Lutherans and Anglicans, and those who branched off 
from the Established Church. What St. Jerome says of 
" the garrulous old maids, and dotards, and wordy 
sophists," 4 of his time, namely, that they affected to 
explain what they were ignorant of, and in doing so, tore 
the sacred words to shreds, is true of the reformers. 
Hardly had Luther unfurled the standard of revolt, and 
left the solitude of his cell to enjoy the company of Cathe- 
rine Bore, than he discovered and proved too, if not to 
the satisfaction of others, at least to his own, that poly- 
gamy might be permitted ; that man could not sin so long 
as he believed ; and that good works rather impeded than 
facilitated admission into heaven. Calvin's mind was 
equally inventive. From the Sacred Scriptures, he de- 
rived, if his words are to be trusted, the information, that 
man was not possessed of free will, that God was the author 

3 See John vii, 52, and xix, 7, &c. 
4 " Hanc (Scripturarum artem) garrula anus, hanc dilirus senex, hanc 
sophista verbosus, hanc universi prsesumunt, lacerant, docent antequam 
discant . . . . et ne parum hoc sit, quadam facilitate verborum, immo auda- 
cia, edisserunt alios quod ipsi non intelligunt." (Epist. ad Paulinum.) 

O 



290 The English Reformation. 

of sin, that our reprobation or salvation depended purely 
on the prevision and predetermination of the Almighty, 
and that the last moments of our Saviour were moments 
of despair. Socinus was an abler man than either Luther 
or Calvin, and he gave indeed full play to his mind in 
reference to religion. He discarded at once all mys- 
teries: his religious system rejected the Trinity, the 
Divinity of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and original 
sin, and everything else which had been previously looked 
upon as truly awful, because most inexplicable. In vain 
did his enemies cite Scripture against him. He knew 
the letter as well as they did ; and from this letter alone 
he was willing to believe that he had established his own 
positions, and refuted what he called the false notions of 
his opponents. England was less gloomy, if not less pro- 
fane, in working out a new religion. Interest was con- 
sulted, as well as. the Bible, and if the latter offered argu- 
ments in favour of the Establishment, the former shed 
light and lustre on the letter of the law. Men had itching 
palms ; and as they beheld the gold and the silver which 
covered the sanctuary, and the shrines, and statues, and 
chalices, of enormous value; as they cast their eyes on 
the inventories of Monasteries, and other religious Es- 
tablishments, they exclaimed — " ad quid per ditio hcecl" 
and at once it was determined to ease the Church of the 
golden load which oppressed it, and purify the holy places 
from the offerings of superstition, and the idols of silver 
and gold which crowded them. Mistaking avarice for 
zeal, and sacrilege for piety, and their own imaginings for 
revelations, they proclaimed the use of holy symbols to be 
idolatrous, and the veneration of the saints and their 
shrines, as rank superstition. The mass was declared to 



The English Reformation. 291 

be a blasphemous fable, and the real presence was suc- 
ceeded by a real absence of the body and blood of Jesus 
Christ. And then began the scramble for the gold and 
the silver, for the costly vestments and the precious stones, 
which had become useless, in consequence of the doctrinal 
changes; and poor indeed was that house, as Heylin 
observes, which had not become richer by the spoliation 
of the temple, subsequent to the alteration of religion. 

But the necessary results of the system, proved sadly 
perplexing to the original revolters from unity. Wherever 
gospel liberty — such was the name given to the apos- 
tacy from Rome — was proclaimed, contradictory doctrines 
were taught, and to all appearance believed in by the 
people, who, willing to avail themselves of the better gifts 
— of the charismata recently conferred on the world — 
became teachers instead of scholars, and expounders in 
place of hearers of the written word : thus emancipating 
themselves from those who had first of all claimed gospel 
liberty, the right, in other words, of rejecting all authority, 
and of believing nobody, but self. Hence there soon 
uprose, here and elsewhere, numerous bands of self- 
constituted religionists, each orthodox, each supported by 
the written word, and each anathematizing with fiendish 
violence the other sects which had the boldness to dispute, 
or the ignorance not to appreciate the truth of the creed, 
which it proposed and upheld as the religion of the 
Saviour. Luther, and Calvin, and Zuingle, and Socinus ; 
Anglicans, and Anabaptists, and Baptists, and Indepen- 
dents, and Unitarians, were openly opposed one to the 
other : mutually they denounced, they reproached, they 
cursed one another. In one thing each party did agree, 
and this agreement offered abundant evidence of the 



292 The English Reformation. 

frightful extent of the disagreement, and of the unfitness 
of the Scriptures to be the judge of religion, — each party- 
agreed that it alone was orthodox, because it alone ex- 
pounded aright the sacred text, and that all dissentients 
were grossly ignorant of holy writ. Does the Lutheran 
believe the real presence ? See how clearly he proves it : 
is it not written — " this is my body " ? Does the Calvinist 
deny it ? He too will appeal to Scripture, and he will 
say, has not Christ said — " lam the vine " ? and does not 
the Scripture add — " Christ was the rock " ? and are not 
these passages clearly expository of the former words? 
Does the Socinian oppose the Divinity of our Lord and 
God Jesus Christ ? He will cite in proof of his denial, 
the words of Christ himself — " The Father is greater than 
I" If the Anglican admit of infant baptism, can he 
pretend to establish it without drawing down upon himself 
a storm of reproaches, and involving himself in a war of 
words — words derived one and all from the written record 
of inspiration? Will not Baptists, and Quakers, and Rationa- 
lists of numerous shades of opinion, cite text for text ; and 
further endeavour to prove the injustice of even pretend- 
ing to bind the child by promises which he may be here- 
after unwilling to fulfil ? In fine ; nothing is too ridicu- 
lous for the solibiblical system; for, as history shews, 
all imaginable errors have been maintained by virtue of it. 
Not to speak of the errors of the earliest ages, which were 
truly gross, have not individuals in later years, appealed 
to the Scriptures in proof of their being, some the Saviour 
himself, and others the mother of the Redeemer ? Is not 
the solifidian system to the utter disparagement of works 
maintained by these, and do not those laugh at sacraments 
and hierarchy, at mysteries, and all external rights and 



The English Reformation. £93 

observances of religion, advocating only a religion of the 
Spirit, and looking upon everything liturgical, as Jewish, 
and opposed to the simplicity of the Gospel ? Are not 
sects on sects multiplying, all deflecting more and more 
from unity, and rending into pieces, the very fragments of 
religion, which were previously preserved here and else- 
where, in consequence of the assumption, that the Bible 
is the rule of faith ? Well might Selden say — " these two 
words, Search the Scriptures, have undone the world" ; 
and if the English, royal heresiarch, horror struck at the 
mischief he himself had caused, imposed " the penalty of 
a month's imprisonment toties quoties any woman, hus- 
bandman, artificer, yeoman, servingman, apprentice or 
journeyman labourer, &c, should read the Scriptures to 
themselves or to others, privately or openly," no one, 
abstracting from the circumstance of the glaring incon- 
sistency of the royal conduct, will feel surprised. His 
Majesty had "perceived that a great multitude of his 
subjects, more especially of the lower sort, had so abused 
the Scriptures, that they had thereby grown and encreased 
in divers naughty and erroneous opinions ; and by occa- 
sion thereof had fallen into great divisions and dissensions 
among themselves." x What these divisions and opinions 
were, may be seen in Fox: 2 they are truly anti-Chris- 
tian. 

Is, then, the meaning of Scripture clear, or, to make 
the proposition somewhat more technical, is the Scripture 
the source of historic faith; has God given it to man in 
order that he may thence derive a thorough knowledge of, 
and a belief in, those revelations which he has been pleased 
to communicate ? I answer fearlessly, no : and my answer 

1 Stat. 34, 35, Henrici VIII. 2 Page 1136. 



£94 The English Reformation. 

is supported, 1° by all the observations previously made 
relative to the belief and practice of former times, as also 
by the obvious disunion, uncertainty, and utter want of 
faith, which characterize the countries, in which the 
solibiblical system is in vogue. 2° It is evidenced too, 
by all the varying and contradictory commentaries which 
have been published. If Christ had intended the sacred 
volume to be adopted as the rule of faith, assuredly he 
would in his wisdom and mercy, have made the instru- 
ment of faith of such a character as to be generally useful, 
he would have drawn it up in such a manner as to render 
it intelligible to the great bulk of mankind. Now, is the 
Scripture such an instrument; is that work intelligible 
to the great mass of the people ; is it easily understood 
even by the most learned and the most picus ? The 
answer is again plain : facts render all speculation useless. 
If any men were fitted, according to the Protestant notion, 
to understand aright the sacred text, they would be such 
persons as Luther and Calvin, as Socinus and Cranmer, 
as, in fine, the great leaders of the varying dissenting 
bodies who protest against the dogmatical teaching of 
Rome : Wesley, and Penn, and Irving, and Knox, and 
Carpenter, and Pye Smith, &c. Now, viewing the deduc- 
tions of these men, deductions derived, so they tell us, 
from a careful and prayerful study, of the Scriptures, — 
deductions drawn with a consciousness too of the awful 
responsibility of ascribing to the Almighty what is false, 
and much more, what is directly calculated to overthrow 
the system of his own establishing, — deductions made 
after a careful and critical study, not of a mere translation, 
but of the original text, what must we as rational beings 
infer? This: that the Scriptures are not easily under- 



The English Reformation. £95 

stood ; further, that they are the most obscure of records, 
if they do contain one system of belief only, and only one 
code of laws in reference to faith and practice. For, 
what is the fact ? All these commentators are opposed to 
one another, and so opposed as to maintain diametrically 
opposite systems. The real presence is maintained by 
Luther, and denied by Calvin; Carpenter and Socinus 
deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ ; Penn admits no 
sacraments ; Wesley no Episcopal hierarchy : and if 
Cranmer maintains Anglicanism after years of vacillation, 
Knox and Irving are its sworn and implacable opponents. 
If these men were sincere in investigating, truthful in 
stating their convictions, wary in drawing conclusions, 
and desirous of discovering the truth, and that they were 
all this, it would be rash for any sectarian to deny ; then 
I again repeat it, the Bible is not a record easily under- 
stood ; it is a document which even the learned, the good 
and the sincere may readily misunderstand, and which 
none can, speaking independently , so interpret, as to build 
on it an article of faith. For who will dare to say, that 
what so many heresiarchs have explained so differently, 
he understands so absolutely and positively, that his 
interpretation must he right ; that all opinions different 
from his must be false ; nay, more, that the very suspicion 
of error in reference to his interpretations, is criminal? 
Assuredly, no one would dare to maintain such a proposi- 
tion, who was not insane : if maintained, the assertion 
would be looked upon, with reason, as an ebullition of 
unheard-of conceit and vanity, and the author of it would, 
instead of convincing others, either of his wisdom or 
inspiration, become the object of unmitigated pity or con- 
tempt. His head would be as much mistrusted as his 



296 The English Reformation. 

interpretations. Then the solibiblical system is not the 
rule of faith ; it fixes, it determines nothing ; it is at best, 
but a system of uncertain conjectures and uncertain criti- 
cal inferences : and in such uncertainty, faith exists not. 
It reduces religion, in point of fact, to one single truth, — 
a truth, however, which is taught by nature, the belief in 
a God : for in what conclusions do the solibiblists agree, 
beside that ? Not in the Trinity ; not in the Divinity of 
Son and Holy Spirit ; not in the governmental or sacramen- 
tal systems; not in the developments of doctrine; not, in fine, 
in the characteristics and evidences of faith. And yet they 
all believe in Scripture ! Put the case, that a will had been 
in the hands of some parties for the last three hundred years, 
and that notwithstanding the greatest endeavours to under- 
stand its contents, in consequence of the importance of the 
results which were expected to flow from its correct 
interpretation, — endeavours manifest in the works pub- 
lished on it in the form of introductions, keys, dictionaries, 
expositions, paraphrases, versions, transcripts, variantia 
carefully marking out each alteration, however trivial and 
unimportant, commentaries, lectures, as well as in the 
societies established to propagate the instrument, the 
professorships to elucidate its meaning, and the officials 
who were paid abundantly by the State to explain it week 
by week or oftener, — the meaning of that will should after 
the long period of three hundred years, be as little agreed 
upon, as men are agreed upon the meaning of the Bible, 
what conclusion would be universally adopted ? This, 
without doubt : that that will was difficult to be under- 
stood; that it was a hopeless thing to expect to understand 
it, unless some heavenly witness bore evidence to its 
meaning, — ii /xvj $sbg vCpyyoiTO, as Plato observed in 



The English Reformation. 297 

reference to the necessity of the advent of a God to 
remove the ignorance of his times ; l that it was a palpable 
absurdity in the midst of the disputes of the wisest, 
and the differences of the best, to assert that anybody 
and everybody, every dotard, and every sophist, and 
babbling woman, could easily interpret it, and interpret it 
so confidently, as to stake both body and soul on its inter- 
pretation. Such would be the observation of men, in 
relation to a will strenuously contested; why is their 
language different in reference to the Scriptures, when the 
hypothesis referred to in regard of a will, is a fact in 
regard of the Scriptures. To this fact I confidently ap- 
peal : it is the fullest reply to the texts to which some men 
and women foolishly appeal. The scholar's answer to the 
sophist's argument against motion, was the most conclusive 
possible — he moved. So here, the best answer to those 
who maintain in words that the Bible is the rule of faith, 
and a rule fitted for all persons, is to point to facts as 
plain as the world itself. These will show that it is not 
the rule of faith : that it is neither an easy, nor a possible 
means to lead mankind to unity of religion ; that it is in 
point of fact the principle of disunion and division, and 
irreconcileable differences ; that to this, demon and infidel, 
rationalist and Protestant appeal alike, and with equal 
success. 

To talk of the Bible being an easily understood book, 
is to prove oneself grossly ignorant of the Scriptures. For 
1° As our illustrious Cardinal 2 has recently observed, "what 
meaning will the ordinary (or indeed talented) reader 



1 Plato in Epinomide; as also see his second Alcibiades. 

2 The Bible inMaynooth, p. 13. 

o2 



298 The English Reformation. 

draw from the poetry of the Prophets ;- from the woes of 
Isaias against the Moabites, Ethiopians, Babylonians, and 
Syrians ; from the obscnre parabolic visions of Ezechiel ; 
from the locusts of Joel, the unclean marriages of Osee, 
the murmurings of Jonas, the dark adumbrations of Ha- 
baccuc. And the Psalms, and Job, and Ecclesiastes, so 
deep, so obscure, so full of danger to a single false step in 
misapplication, who can conceive what nonsense, or even 
blasphemy, an untutored mind may elaborate from them, 
reading them, and certainly not understanding them, with 
the proud assurance, that he is just as privileged as the 
most learned doctor, to comprehend, and to explain, and 
to apply whatever they contain? And last of all, take 
the " Canticle of Canticles." "What delicacy of mind and 
feeling, what a knowledge of the existence and principles 
of a mystical application, what a power of abstracting 
from apparent sensuality of thought and phrase, and 
dwelling only on its chastest antagonism — love divine — 
does not this most mysterious, most perplexing, most 
bewildering gift of divine inspiration demand, for its pro- 
fitable, or even its safe perusal ? We hesitate not to repeat, 
that merely as a book to be understood, the Bible presents 
more difficulties, independent of phraseology or style, than 
any other work." These words are little more in fact, 
than an echo of those used by the Venerable Fenelon, in 
his letter to the Bishop of Arras, on Bible reading, and 
by Dr. Balguy: "Open your Bibles," says the latter, 
" take the first page, that occurs in either Testament, and 
tell me, without disguise, is there nothing in it too hard 
for your understanding ? If you find all before you clear 
and easy, you may thank God for giving you a privilege 
which he has denied to so many thousands of sincere 



The English Reformation. 299 

believers." And the poet of English prose writers, Jeremy- 
Taylor, has used equally emphatic language, in his work 
on the Liberty of Prophesying : " Since there are so many- 
copies (of Scripture) with infinite variations of reading; 
since a various interpunction, a parenthesis, a letter, an 
accent, may much alter the sense ; since some places have 
divers literal senses, may have spiritual, mystical, and 
allegorical meanings ; since there are so many tropes, 
metonymies, ironies, hyperboles, proprieties and impro- 
prieties of language, whose understanding depends upon 
such circumstances that it is almost impossible to know 
the proper interpretation since there are some mys- 
teries which, at the best advantage of expression, are not 
easy to be apprehended, and whose explication, by reason 
of our imperfection, must needs be dark and sometimes 
unintelligible; and lastly, since these ordinary means of 
expounding Scripture, as searching the originals, confer- 
ence of places, parity of reason, analogy of faith, are all 
dubious, uncertain, and very fallible, he that is the wisest, 
and by consequence the likeliest to expound truest, in 
all probability of reason will be very far from confidence, 
because every one of these, and many more, are like so 
many degrees of improbability and uncertainty, all de- 
pressing our certainty of finding out truth in such mys- 
teries and amidst so many difficulties." 1 Locke, too, in 
his preface to St. Paul's Epistles, honestly declares that 
he neither understood the doctrinal nor the discursive 
parts of those Epistles. He could fathom the depths of 
the " human understanding," but the Scriptures were 

1 Liberty of Prophesying, sect. 4. See too on this head the Honble. 
Mr. Boyle's observations on the nature of St. Paul's Epistles, in his Style 
of Scripture. 



300 TJie English Reformation. 

admittedly beyond his intellectual grasp. And yet we 
are gravely told that the Scriptures are easy, and that 
every blockhead is to read and interpret them ; and 
further, we are condemned to be branded as profane, 
and treated as enemies of the light, for mamtaining, with 
Balguy, and Taylor, and Locke, that the Scriptures are 
not only difficult, but absolutely useless for the attainment 
of the end to which Protestantism applies them. 

2° To the biblical student it is well known, that the 
Scriptures abound in tropes, figures, and modes of expres- 
sion once perhaps familiar to those to whom they were 
addressed, and among whom they were written, but now 
strange to us at all times, and frequently unintelligible. 

3° They abound in allusions now forgotten, in historical 
facts to which we have no other references, and in chro- 
nologies and genealogies which we cannot clear up by 
means of such history as has been handed down to our 
days. 

4° Inverted and partial statements; transitions too which 
necessarily obscure the end and object of the writer ; epi- 
tomes too short to render the record clear; statements 
which appear contradictory, and which thousands have 
endeavoured to conciliate ineffectually ; prophecies of un- 
certain fulfilment, whether time, or place, or person be 
considered; and mysteries of unfathomable depth occur in 
nearly every book of the sacred text, and prove the diffi- 
culty of interpreting Holy Writ. The wonder then is 
not, that the eunuch exclaimed, f 'How can I (understand 
the Scriptures), if no one show me ? ",* or that our blessed 
Redeemer explained and interpreted the written word, 
that his Apostles might understand? or again, that St. 

1 Acts viiij 31. 2 Luke xxiy, 45. 



The English Reformation. 301 

Peter stated, in reference to the writings which had just 
appeared of St. Paul, that there were some things in them 
which could be with difficulty understood; 3 but here 
is matter for amazement, that any persons should be so 
rash, as to assert that the Scriptures are easy, that every 
person may interpret them, and that Christ has acted so 
foolishly, as to make his Church dependent on such inter- 
pretation ! Look at the promises made by the Solibiblists, 
and compare them with facts ; 

Quid dignum tanto feret hie promissor hiatu ? 

What have they done? Have they agreed upon the 
meaning of the text ? Have they succeeded in esta- 
blishing unity of faith, by their principle ? Have they 
given one proof — but one — to the world, that unity of 
faith is increasing, and that there is a chance of a 
common belief through the common blessing of the circu- 
lation of the Holy Volume ? Let Lutherans and Calvinists, 
Socinians and Anglicans, Baptists and Independents, Pres- 
byterians and Methodists, answer. This answer will be 
a singular instance of what the poet calls — symphonia 
discors ! 

Indeed, Protestants, thoughtful, intelligent, studious 
Protestants, themselves repudiate the tenet of Anglicanism 
— the proposition so confidently uttered in the pulpit and 
on the platform — " that the Bible, and the Bible only, is 
the rule of faith." The great Hooker, in his Ecclesias- 
tical Polity, says, " The Scripture could not teach us the 
things of God ; unless we did credit men, who have taught 
us that the words of Scripture did signify those things"* 
And Lord Bolingbroke is equally explicit: "Writers of 

3 2 Epist. iii, 16. Hooker, 1. c. p. 116. 



302 The English Reformation. 

the Roman religion have attempted to show, that the text 
of Holy Writ is on many accounts, insufficient to be the 
sole criterion of orthodoxy. I apprehend, too, that they 
have shown it. Sure I am, that experience, from the first 
promulgation of Christianity to this hour, shows abun- 
dantly, with how much ease and success, the most oppo- 
site, the most extravagant, nay, the most impious opinions 
and the most contradictory faiths, may be founded on the 
same text, and plausibly defended by the same authority." 1 
Still later, the Protestant principle has, to my mind, been 
wholly abandoned, as utterly untenable, by an able and 
thoughtful writer in the British Critic, whose ideas I will 
lay before the reader, omitting, however, such portions 
of his observations as are not absolutely required for the 
elucidation of his meaning. (i( That the Bible, and the 
Bible onhj, is the religion of the Protestant] is a saying 
undoubtedly true) tohen taken in its proper sense. But 
we fear that, in these days, it is passed from mouth to 
mouth, with but little consideration of the import which 
it bore in the mind of its first utterer, and with as yet 
little sympathy in his theological views. We have, in- 
deed, more especially of late, been much dissatisfied with 
the indiscriminate manner in which so pregnant a pro- 
position has been bandied about, and been not seldom 
astonished, if not disgusted, at the careless unexploring 
confidence with which men have put forward a saying, 
which bears on its very front, to enquiring eyes at least, 

the marks of deep and difficult theological debate As 

it is commonly understood, we believe, by the noisy and 
loquacious debaters of this day, it means that the Christian 
needs study no other ecclesiastical authors, than such as 

1 Fifth letter on the Use and Study of History. 



The English Reformation. 303 

are contained in the sacred canon, and even the study 
thus limited, is, in the case of almost all those persons, 
still farther confined to the English version, and English 
commentaries. No wonder that so many should think 
themselves qualified expounders of what seems in such 

easy reach, and almost to come to every man's door 

Every one who reads it (the New Testament) with that 
accurate and yet comprehensive view which it demands 
from a scholar and divine, must observe in it germs, as it 
were, not expanded into full meaning, allusions incident- 
ally made, which, as soon as he steps beyond the limits 
of the volume, he finds put forth in the early fathers into 
visible blossoms and fulness. Such, for instance, is the 
case of the institution of the Lord's Day, and of the 
establishment of Episcopal government, of which, observ- 
ing the elements in the New Testament, and finding the 
maturity in the early fathers, we can no more doubt of 
their apostolical authority, than as if they had been expli- 
citely laid down and commanded in the New Testament, 
as the institution of the Sabbath and the appointment of 

the Aaronic Priesthood are enjoined in the Old 

" Perhaps we shall be now asked, in what sense we 
ourselves understand the much bruited apophthegm, f the 
Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants.' 
We will give it as briefly as we can, and it is this, that 
since the volume of the New Testament is of such a nature 
externally as we have just described, and from its internal 
nature (consisting as it does of independent treatises, 
though all bearing to the same end) in very many places 
alludes rather than expresses, hints circumstances rather 
than relates them, takes for granted rather than enjoins, 
on this account, the person who would examine for him- 



304 37*e English Reformation. 

self the foundations of his Churchy or who may distrust 
its institutions, or be pressed with doctrines strange to 
his communion, yet pretending to Apostolic antiquity, 
who may be asked on what principle he acknowledges 
the canon of Scripture itself, to such a person we say, 
the Bible, and the Bible only, is not sufficient to establish 
his religion. He must proceed beyond the volume into 
the immediately succeeding series of uncanonical writers, 
before he can meet with all the satisfaction which he 
requires ; at the same time he must previously have well 
studied that volume, must have diligently imbibed its 
spirit, marked well the nature and relative position of the 
passages, by which he is referred to succeeding writers. 
Thus he will enter upon the field of tradition, informed 
with a knowledge to distinguish the wheat from the chaff, 
what is of Christ, and what is not of Christ ; what imme- 
diately runs into union with the pure gold of Scripture, 
and what is averse to it. Thus is the Bible only the 
religion of Protestants : but it is the Bible as read by 
the founders of Protestantism, the Bible as read by the 
builders and worthies of our excellent Church, by Cran- 
mer, by Parker, by Jewel, by Hooker, by Bull, by Taylor, 
by Barrow " l These writers felt as others had pre- 
viously, that it was monstrous to maintain the popular 
cry and popular notion regarding the Bible. The popular 
notion then, turns out to be absolutely false. It is not 
the Bible alone, but the Bible with the primitive fathers 
of Christianity, and with the primitive fathers of Angli- 
canism. Ignatius, and Clement, and Polycarp, must help 
Cranmer, and Bull, and Jewel, and such like worthies, to 
develope the germ, and elucidate the obscure. But is the 

1 British Critic, vol. x, pp. 256-8, 1831. 



The English Reformation. 305 

mass of society benefited by tbis observation ? is it drawn 
nearer to the truth in consequence of it ? No. For 1° 
Is this principle Scriptural, that the fathers must be read, 
and that Cranmer and his are fair tests and criterions 
of orthodoxy ? 2° Is it a principle which is admitted 
generally; is it a principle which can be honored with 
the name of Catholic, because universally applicable ? 
Assuredly not : the world at large cannot read either 
Ignatius' or Polycarp's opinions, or the opinions of Cran- 
mer, and Jewel, and Bull. They have not their works ; 
and, if they had them, they would not be better able 
to understand their doctrinal systems, than the system 
of faith which may be contained in the pages of the New 
Testament : and what is more, all separatists from Angli- 
canism will laugh at the idea of pinning their faith to 
the phylacteries of such changelings as Cranmer and 
Jewel. They will ask, why appeal to man, instead of God; 
why go to the fallible, for the exposition of the infallible ; 
why cry out the Bible, and the Bible only, and even- 
tually declare that it is Polycarp, in fact, and Cranmer, 
who are to rule and regulate the faith of Christendom. 
Was not Knox as able as Jewel, and Wesley as inspired 
as Parker, and Penn as disinterested in adopting biblical 
conclusions and upraising his system, as that Cranmer 
who retracted and retracted, married and divorced, burnt 
some for believing the real presence, and others for dis- 
believing it ? And if so, why explain the Gospels accord- 
ing to Cranmer rather than according to Penn, and prefer 
Jewel to the rude Scottish zealot, Knox ? 2° Is it a 
principle which is consistent ? Did not Anglicanism begin 
in the rejection of all testimony ? Did it not everywhere 
proclaim that the world could err, and had actually be- 



306 The English Reformation. 

come apostate ? Did it not state that the Bible was man's 
guide, to the exclusion of popes, prelates, and ministers 
of religion, all of whom it was stated, were liable to error 
and deceit? How then can authority be consistently 
appealed to ? How can those, who have been taught to 
believe in the doctrine of a fallible Church, be expected, 
after the establishment of Anglicanism, to trust in a 
handful of men, such as Cranmer, and Jewel, and Parker ? 
4° Even if the writers named were consentient, this would 
not be any argument in proof of their doctrines being 
divine : for thousands on thousands of authors of acknow- 
ledged merit, equally eminent as biblists and as scholars, 
adopt and defend conclusions widely different. But are 
they consentient ? Do they all uphold the same doctrines ? 
Are they even always self-consistent? They are not, as 
every scholar knows. Cranmer is opposed to Cranmer, 1 
and Jewel's greatest enemy, is John Jewel, whilom Bishop 
of Salisbury. Reading is not the means of arriving at 
faith : it is not by means of a book, that we are to believe : 
"Faith cometh through hearing, and hearing through the 
word of God." The task of wading through the fathers, 
and adopting right conclusions, is impossible to mankind 
at large. Men must be taught, and taught authoritatively. 
Such a system of teaching may convey to us the meaning 
of the sacred Scriptures and of the fathers, and guard us 
against mistakes and errors, affecting the deposit of doc- 
trine and morality which Christ committed to the safe 
keeping of his spouse, the Church; a less authoritative 
and divine teacher will not suffice. 

In fact, as far as I can gather from the writings of this 

1 On this matter see an able work entitled, " Tract XC Considered," 
p. 16. 



The English Reformation. 307 

century, even Protestants more than doubt of the truth 
of their principle, as applied to all mankind. They see 
the inconsistency of maintaining that the Bible is easily 
understood, when after all their researches they are forced 
to allow that it is replete with difficulties — difficulties 
which affect nothing less than the very foundation of 
all Christianity. They blush in the face of facts, to pro T 
claim it, the source of union ; and if all those conclusions 
are deserving of attention, which are said to be advocated 
by the letter of the Scripture, there is indeed cause 
enough for shame. They see the folly of saying that 
every one who chooses to interpret, and assume the cha- 
racter of expounder of the written word, is as deserving 
of credit, and as entitled by God to decide on the dog- 
matical and moral code contained in the Bible, as the 
ministers of religion themselves, — as the whole Church, 
even taken conjunctively. Hence, they would have some 
kind of subordination ; they would limit the extent of this 
principle; they would empower only a portion of the 
community to explain the sacred records for themselves, 
whilst the remainder should be compelled to listen to 
and acquiesce in the explanations offered them of the 
meaning of holy writ. In a word, by some persons at 
least, faithful expounders are required; and to such, 
the Bible is not the only rule of faith. And in point of 
fact, did not Anglicanism stultify itself, as De Maistre 
has well observed, and expose the hollowness of the cry — 
i s liberty of conscience" by the publication of articles, 
and homilies, and prayer-books, which were to be received 
as certain, and conformable to holy writ. The Dissenters, 
as a body, have not been thus inconsistent ; and owing to 
their stricter adherence to principle, they, as well as 



308 The English Reformation. 

Catholics, have been enabled to aim many a deadly blow 
at Protestantism. 1 

But the Protestant limitation just adduced will not 
suffice. The principle is universal ; and these would-be 
teachers, have no right to lord it over the consciences 
and understandings even of the lowest and the meanest, 
by altering that principle. On its universal truth, was 
constructed Protestantism : deny its universal applicability, 
and Protestantism is even thus proved to be a delusion 
and a deceit. The texts cited in favour of the principle 
against Catholics, as also the grounds of that principle, 
namely, that man is fallible, and God's word only, infalli- 
ble, all evince the same thing: namely, that the Bible 
was originally held up as the sole authority through which 
faith was attainable. 

And indeed, pitiful would be the position of the poor, 
and of the illiterate, if, after having abandoned the autho- 
rity of priests, bishops, popes, councils, fathers, and the 
whole of Christendom, — these were directly opposed and 
set at nought at the Reformation, on the plea, that the 
whole world might err and actually had erred, — they 
were to be obliged to attach their belief to the teaching 
of one or more individuals, whose authority was admitted 
to be fallible, who claimed no connexion with any uner- 
ring line of prelacy, and whose mission thus to preach, 
and thus to dogmatize, had no evidences. The explana- 



1 See in evidence of this, the famous Unitarian works of Acton and 
Carpenter; as also the more recent works of the Hallite, Beverley. Gan- 
dolfy's congratulatory letter to Dr. Marsh of Peterhorough is very ahle 
too. In vain did the bishop endeavour to escape from the consequences 
of his own declaration, that the Prayer-book ought to be circulated with 
the Bible. 



The English Reformation. 309 

tions even of a Mant, and a Clarke, and a Whitby, are 
but their interpretations ; perhaps capricious and fanciful 
expositions, which others, , equally learned, utterly and 
entirely repudiate. Taught by such men, or an inferior 
order of men, how can the illiterate have faith? They 
may have faith in Mant, in Clarke, in Whitby, but have 
they, and is this a consequence, faith in the positive reve- 
lation of God? It should always be remembered, that 
the interpretations of these men, are ignored by the bulk 
of mankind, are admitted by none save a few of their own 
party, who only look upon them, at the best, as probable 
inferences, and fallible deductions. And are such autho- 
rities to be the grounds of faith ? No : restriction of inter- 
pretation is only tolerable, under a system of infallibility? 
Whoever will call to mind, the workings of this princi- 
ple, and further remember that instead of one creed, 
there are in England at least two hundred organized 
religions, the members of which hardly ever believe alike ; 
that in Germany, as Starke, in his entretiens, and Muller, 

2 In opposition to these advocates for a modified license of expounding 
the Scripture, I would wish to draw the attention of the reader to the 
opinions of some distinguished Protestant writers. " The Protestant 
Church," says Bishop Watson, "permits every individual ' et sentire quce 
velit, et quce sentiat, loquV " " The principle of the Reformation," says 
Bishop Warburton, "was not so much the right of separation from the 
errors of a corrupt Church, as that Christian liberty which gives every 
man a right to worship God according to his conscience." Bishop Hurd 
observes, " Our incomparable Chillingworth, and some others established, 
for ever, the old principle, that the Bible and that only, interpreted by our 
best reason, is the religion of Protestants." " The Protestant acknow- 
ledges no universal head, nor deems the Church itself, acting even by its 
legitimate rulers, to be either gifted with infallibility, or vested with such 
authority as may annul the right of its individual members to appeal to the 
Scripture itself." — Van Mildert, Bampton Lectures. 



310 TJie English Reformation. 

notice, there is scarcely one doctrine of Christianity which 
is not systematically denied by the Lutherans, whilst in 
Switzerland, the Calvinists blush to mention the doctrine 
of original sin, and endeavour to rid themselves of every- 
thing allied to the miraculous or the mysterious, and that 
in all these countries, both the clergy and laity advocate 
these contradictory and antichristian systems, on the war- 
rantee, and by virtue of, holy writ, will wonder how it 
comes to pass, that such a principle can possibly be main- 
tained, as a principle of unity, and of belief. I am not 
arguing from the accidental abuses of the system; I am 
appealing to natural results; results which coexist with 
the system, and are identified with it; results which are 
inseparable from it, so long as each person is to be his 
own teacher, his own expounder, his own guide in the 
study, not merely of biblical hermeneutics, but of bible 
faith, and bible faith only. 

As long as men are unequal in society, unequal in 
leisure, in talents, in research, unequal in the appliances 
and means of study, and society cannot exist without these 
and other differences ; so long must there be, as we have 
already shewn from the admitted nature of the sacred 
writings, the widest differences of interpretations, and the 
most contradictory inferences. 1 This was even seen by 
Voltaire. "If (he says) there was not an authority to 
fix and determine the sense of the Bible, and the dogmas 
of religion, the consequence would then be, that there 
would be as many sects, as there are individuals who read 

1 Even Tillotson says — "We are not infallibly certain, that any book 
of Scripture is so ancient as it pretends to be; or that it was written by 
the persons whose name it bears ; nor that this is the sense of such and 
such passages in it. All this may possibly be otherwise." 



The English Reformation. 311 

the Bible." 3 Admit once the rule of Protestantism, and 
it is impossible to say what will be the inferences which 
the mind of man may draw from the Scriptures. "What 
appears true to-day, may to-morrow be adjudged false. 
As knowledge comes, changes may result; and he who 
began the year with fancying that he could prove from 
Scripture, the mystery of the Trinity, and the Divinity 
of Christ, the heavenly origin of the hierarchy, and of 
the Sacraments, may end it in rejecting each and all of 
these former articles of his ideal Church. This has been 
observed upon not only by the French Encyclopaedists, 
in their analysis and careful examination of the distinctive 
rule of Protestantism, but also by Protestants themselves. 
"The greatest benefit derived to religion by the efforts 
of the reformers, (says Nightingale,) is that doctrine, 
which they so often disallowed to others, but which they 
found so convenient to themselves, of acknowledging 
the unrestrained right of private judgment in matters 
of faith. And there is little risk in asserting that, who- 
ever proposes any contrary terms or articles of union, 
as necessary to be admitted, violates one of the lead- 
ing and fundamental principles of the Protestant Refor- 
mation. But this would lead to downright Socinianism, 
as the Catholics charge upon us. May be so. The 
charge is not without foundation, notwithstanding what 
some excellent Protestants have written on the sub- 
ject. This dreadful consequence may follow. It is a 
lamentable case. But there is no way to prevent it, while 
you allow the principle. You may issue your orders of 
synods, convocations, conferences, and acts of uniformity; — 
you may enlarge or curtail the thirty-nine Articles ; — you 

2 Essai sur l'histoire. 



31£ The English Reformation, 

may even pronounce the sentence of God's wrath and 
damnation against heretics and schismatics : so long as 
you admit that groundwork of the reformation — the right 
of private judgment — though you spend your strength 
in fulminations and your skill in devising new terms of 
salvation, you will only be laughed at by the discerning 
Christian, as inconsistent and intolerant." The believer 
in the Trinity has no right, as a Protestant, to condemn 
the Antitrinitarian, nor has the adorer of Christ, in this 
system, a right to speak against him who is a sincere Arian 
or Socinian ; because these have as much right to read and 
interpret as the professors of rival creeds. The disbeliever 
in Mysteries, has, on biblical grounds, as much reason to 
upbraid protestantism and dissent, as Dissenters and Pro- 
testants can have to reproach him. Faith, emanating 
from such a source, is an uncertain thing : it is a Proteus — 
a creature of fables and fancies : it is not the revelation 
of the Almighty, fixed, determined, unalterable, eternal. 
He who possesses real faith, knows that this latter kind of 
belief alone, is Christian. Protestantism then is not 
Christian : its first notion is destructive of Christianity. 
See the creeds it upholds, and the religions it has estab- 
lished ; and its antagonism to revelation will be seen and 
readily admitted by the sincere. 

Though Protestantism has no right to appeal to the 
Scriptures, as we have shown, and as others who wrote 
against heresies in general have demonstrated seventeen 
hundred years ago, in opposition to that authority whence 
alone the knowledge of the letter of the Scriptures has 
been derived : though again this appeal can have no 
weight as an argument for those very reasons which we 
have stated at considerable length, still since it may be 



The English Reformation. 313 

useful to see on what passages of holy writ Protestants 
rely, whilst maintaining that the Bible alone as interpreted 
by each individual is the rule of faith for the Christian, 
I will bring before the reader the leading texts which to 
some at least seem to bear out their case. 

The most remarkable passage which is ever brought 
forward is the 39th verse of the fifth chapter of St. John's 
Gospel : " Search the Scriptures, for you think in them to 
have everlasting life ; and the same are they, that give 
testimony of me." 1° I have already observed on these 
words ; and the reader will not fail to remember the 
argument of Bishop Jebbe in favor of the reading, " You 
do search the Scriptures." Thus interpreted, or rather 
thus translated, a fact is simply stated, not a command ; 
and the command alone can bear out even in appearance 
the Protestant theory. But 2°, to what do the words 
refer ? to the means of arriving at the knowledge of the 
particular truths of Christianity ? No : to the means of 
discovering Christ ; to the knowledge of his being the 
Messias promised by the prophets. To what Scriptures 
again do they refer ? To the Scriptures of the new Law, 
which contain documents relating to and written by Chris- 
tians, or to the Scriptures of the old Law, which contain 
the precepts and doctrines enunciated for the benefit of 
the Jew? They allude only to the latter; for, when 
Christ spoke, not a letter of the new Law had been 
penned, nor was a letter of it penned for years and years 
afterwards. Since Christianity was a new Law, since it 
contained revelations unknown to the Jews, and posi- 
tive ordinances dependent solely on the will and benefi- 
cence of Christ, obviously it would be folly to appeal to 
the Old Testament in proof of the specific doctrines and 

p 



314 The English Reformation. 

ordinances of the new system. 3° Were not men bound to 
hear and obey Christ, when Christ was known ? Would 
fallible men in the presence of this admitted infallible Mes- 
sias be allowed to search and judge for themselves ? Was 
it not the bounden duty of men to hear and believe what 
Christ said, whatever might be their private comment on 
either his words or deeds ? Obviously so : and even Pro- 
testants allow that if there were now an infallible teacher 
enunciating the meaning of the sacred oracles, or the reve- 
lation in general of Jesus Christ, every one would be 
bound to obey him. Hence, Apostles believed, not be- 
cause they had read, but because they had heard; not 
because they understood in this or that manner the Sacred 
Scriptures, but because the God of the Scriptures had 
himself taught them, and proved his word to be divine, by 
evidencing his divinity : " Master, to whom shall we go ? 
thou hast the words of eternal life." 

The text is clearly then beside the question — it does 
not even remotely regard the point at issue. At the most, 
it can only be referred to the oracles testificatory of our 
Lord's character, and not to the way in which one who 
believes in Christ, who is already a Christian, is to learn 
the truths of Christianity. It regards, in a word, the 
unbeliever, not the believer. But the Protestant wants to 
know what course the believer is to pursue — what rule 
he is to follow who admits Christ to be the very truth. 
Already we have answered the question ; we have shown 
that our Lord taught, and bade others teach, all that he 
had said ; and furthermore he invested these teachers with 
his own authority. 

To render still clearer the nullity of such a reference, I 
will now draw the reader's attention to the dissimilarity 



The English Reformation. 315 

existing between the Jew and the believer in Christ. 1° 
The Jew was already possessed of a divine system of reli- 
gion, one of the principal articles of which was a belief in 
a future Messias. £° He received from his Church the 
Sacred Scriptures, and on its authority held them to be 
divine. 3° All or most of the sacrifices, at which he 
assisted, had a reference to the coming and sufferings of 
the Redeemer, and he was informed which were the 
prophecies to be fulfilled by the Messias. Now, on the 
other hand, the Protestant, who takes the bible to guide 
him to faith, is supposed 1° to have no Church, no belief; 
£° he has no authority for the sacred records, inasmuch as 
he rejects all authority if he is a consistent Protestant, as we 
have already proved : he has no assurance of the inspira- 
tion, genuineness, canonicity, or incorruption of the Scrip- 
tures, independent of the Catholic Church, which adduces 
as powerful proofs in favour of its perpetuity, inerrancy, 
and authority to teach, as it offers in favour of the divinity 
of the sacred writings. 3° The Protestant has no guide to 
or in the Sacred Scriptures ; he has no prophets assigning 
certain passages as the divine expression of this or that 
tenet. He is himself the Prophet to the Bible, self-consti- 
tuted and self-deceived. Those to whom Christ spoke are 
supposed by many writers to have been the Doctors of the 
Sanhedrim, who were styled the pillars of instruction, and 
noted for their skill in the Scriptures ; l but be this as it 
may, our Lord's hearers 'were referred by him to well- 
known and well-proved documents — to documents legiti 
mately explained — to documents of which the teacher and 
establisher of Christianity said at last that they bore evi- 
dence of him: whereas Protestantism directs not priests 

1 See on this head, Elsley's Annotations, vol. iii, p. 53. 



316 The English Reformation. 

and ministers only, but the whole of mankind, to expound 
the Scriptures, and interpret them, without the aid of any 
infallible authority ; asserting a doctrine, and saying that 
that is in the Scriptures. If a doctrine he already known, 
known by virtue of a heavenly statement, then there is no 
danger to him who believes that doctrine, in searching for 
the written evidence. 1 Thus to the Catholic who believes 
before he reads, the Scriptures offer fresh and fresh evi- 
dences, and the more he searches, the greater appears to 
be the number of references and allusions in the sacred 
writings to his doctrines. But the question with the Pro- 
testant is about the doctrine. He does not believe at all 
before, he only believes in consequence of, reading. 
He has no polar star, as it were, to guide him in his 
course. His course depends upon his lesser or greater 
ignorance or knowledge, boldness or timidity. The differ - 

1 Tertullian's observations on this head are very apt and illustrative. 
" For us there is no need," he says, " of curiosity after Christ Jesus, nor of 
enquiry after the Gospel. When we do believe, we do not desire to believe 
anything besides. For this we believe from the first, that there is nothing 
which we ought to believe besides. I come, therefore, to that point which 
even ours adduce for entering on, and which heretics urge for introducing 
curious enquiry. It is written, they say, ' Seek and ye shall find. 1 Let 
us remember on what occasion the Lord uttered this saying. In the very 
first beginning, I imagine, of his teaching, when it was doubted by all 
men whether he was the Christ, and when as yet not even Peter had pro- 
nounced him the Son of God, and John had ceased to be certain about him. 
With reason, therefore, was it then said ' /Seek and ye shall find? at a time 
when he was yet to be sought, who was not yet acknowledged. And this 
as regards the Jews : for to them pertains the whole language of this 
reproach, as having wherein they might seek Christ. ' TJiey have' he 
says, ' Moses and Elias, the law and the prophets which preach Christ ;' 
agreeably to which also, in another place, he says openly : ' Search the 
Scriptures in which ye hope for salvation, for they speak of me.' " — De 
h c. viii. 



The English Reformation. 317 

ence, then, between the position of the Jew and the Chris- 
tian is most marked; and this difference will show the 
folly of referring to John v, 39. Whatever Christ might 
be in himself, he was nothing to others, till he was known. 
Now, how does our divine Saviour act, in order to prove 
his real character, in the discourse of which the words 
cited form but a small portion. First, he tells the Jews, 
that John had borne witness to Him, " Ye sent unto John, 
and he bore witness unto the truth :" and he appeals to 
his own miracles as affording still more conclusive evi- 
dence : — " But I have greater witness than that of John : 
for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, 
the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the 
Father hath sent me." Afterwards he appeals to a third 
witness, the testimony of his Father : " And the Father 
himself," he says, " who hath sent me, hath borne witness 
of me ;" and lastly he observes : " Ye search the Scrip- 
tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they 
are they which testify of me ; and ye will not come to me, 
that ye might have life." 2 Thus it appears, that Christ is 
condemning the Jews for their obduracy. Though John, 
and miracles and the Eternal Father and the Scriptures, all 
proclaimed the same one truth, that Christ was the 
Messias, still the Jews remained obdurate. Evidences 
enough were given, and yet all were rejected. Any one 
was sufficient. Sufficient was the testimony of John; 
sufficient was the testification of the Father ; sufficient were 
the miracles which Christ had wrought ; but all collectively 
were disregarded and despised. Hence this followed : if 
the Jews were incredulous, if they refused to hear the 
Messias, the fault was their own — not God's. This was 

2 John v, 33, 36, 37, 39. 



318 The English Reformation. 

the conclusion which Christ drew, and not this other : the 
Bible is the only rule of faith. With as much reason 
might John, or the word which came froni heaven, or 
miracles be declared to be the only rule of faith, as the 
Scriptures which Christ named. 

Christ acted, in a word, precisely in the same manner as 
the Christian does, when about to establish the Divinity of 
Christianity. He adduced the motives of credibility, 
before he demanded submission to his teachings. So the 
Christian who wishes to prove to Jew or Gentile the 
divinity of his system, proves it by extrinsic motives to be 
divine. Until this is done, Christianity is extrinsically of 
no authority to the Infidel. But, if this Christianity be 
proved, then belief in its dogmas is a duty. "What does 
this Christianity teach, is the next obvious query ; as the 
query after, not before, the evidences had been given in 
proof of Christ's divinity would be, what has Christ 
taught, and from what source am I to derive full informa- 
tion, relative to the distinctive dogmas and regulations of 
the Christian dispensation ? 

At all events, the result of the Jewish appeal to Scrip- 
ture will not appear very satisfactory to the Protestant : — 
it ended in disbelief, and in the rejection of Jesus Christ. 
" There is one that accuseth you, Moses, in whom ye trust. 
For had ye believed Moses, ye would hare believed me : for 
he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how 
shall ye believe my words." 1 The Jews did not reject 
Moses' writings, neither did they disbelieve the letter of 
the law, still they are said not to have believed. Why ? 
Because they turned the text from its obvious meaning, 
and substituted their interpretations for the Word of God. 

1 St. John v. 45, 47. 



The English Reformation. 319 

This is precisely what the separatists from Kome do. The 
written word bears testimony to the inerrancy, infallibility., 
and perpetuity of the Church ; it teaches that the Church 
of the living God is not an insular Church, the Church of 
one kingdom, a Church established by an Act of Parlia- 
ment, but the Church of all nations, and an establishment 
founded by the Most High ; it teaches the doctrines of the 
Holy Eucharist, of the remission of sins through the 
ministers of religion, of the efficacy of the Holy Unction in 
the hour of sickness, and of the intercessorship of those 
who stand before the throne of God; it maintains the 
usefulness of praying for the dead, the necessity and merit 
of works ; in fine, it proves that the Christian is to have 
for ever an altar and a sacrifice — a sacrifice pure and holy, 
offered up according to the rite of Melchisedech. But 
what the better are those who read these texts if they 
continue ignorant of the doctrines of Jesus Christ ? None. 
They stand accused by Jesus, and the Apostles, and the 
inspired writers in general. They neither believe the 
sacred writings, nor do they credit the divine words of 
Christ. In the midst of light they are in darkness, and 
though possessed of the letter of the law, they are without 
the spirit which gives meaning, and force, and under- 
standing. The letter kills ; it is like the lifeless body, a 
principle to some, of corruption and of pestilence : it is the 
odour of death unto death. 

Similarly inapplicable will appear on examination a 
second text often appealed to with confidence by Pro- 
testants ; namely, the 11th verse of the xvii c. of the Acts 
of the Apostles. It is related in the chapter referred to, 
1 that St. Paul when at Thessalonica entered the Syna- 
gogue of the Jews, where for three Sabbath days he 



320 The English Reformation. 

reasoned with them out of the Scriptures relative to the 
fulfilment of the prophecies regarding the Messias, in the 
person of Jesus Christ. 2° The result of this was, that 
whilst some believed, others disbelieved, and by these a 
sedition was raised against the heavenly-commissioned dis- 
putant. 3° The Brethren, in consequence, " sent away 
Paul and Silas by night into Berea, who coming thither 
went into the Synagogue of the Jews." 4° Of these 
Bereans, this testimony is given, and the testimony is the 
matter of the Protestant objection which we are about to 
investigate. " These were more noble than those in 
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all 
readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily 
whether those things were so. Therefore, many of them 
believed. Also, the honourable women who were Greeks, 
and of men not a few." The answer is clear to this ideal 
difficulty. 1° The persons addressed were not Christians 
but Jews ; who had to learn that the Messias had come. 
2° Out of the documents which they knew to be divine, 
the Jews were taught by St. Paul, and infallibly, the 
truth. 3° They heard his word ; they examined his 
arguments, and the result was conviction. But when con- 
vinced, what was the rule of Christianity ? Can any one 
doubt after what we have said ? Then the Apostolic word 
was to be heard and believed : the chooser then became a 
heretic ; and the teacher of a doctrine opposed to that of 
Paul, even had he been an angel, would have been sub- 
jected to the Pauline anathema. As I have before 
observed, it is one thing to examine the Scriptures for the 
motives of credibility leading to Christianity, and another 
thing to examine them as the only rule of faith after a 
person is a believer in Christianity in general. Again, it 



The English Reformation. 321 

is very different to examine them, when expounded and 
positively referred to by one of the ministerial line 
appointed to develope the truths of religion, and to exa- 
mine them, ignorant of doctrine and without an infallible 
exponent. It is, in fine, very different for the Christian 
minister to argue with the Jew on his own grounds, in 
order to convict him of his errors against Christ, and to 
maintain that the knowledge of the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity rests on that principle which may have effectually 
disproved Judaism. To the present hour, the Catholic 
minister acts towards the Jew, precisely as St. Paul did. 
He points to the prophecies which the Jews admit, and 
shows how in Christ all have been fulfilled : he further- 
more, like the Redeemer, appeals to the fact of miracles 
admitted even by Josephus, and to those other evidences 
with which the readers of works on revelation and Chris- 
tianity are already familiar. But would Jew or Gentile 
thence infer that such evidences were the rule of each 
specific doctrine of the Christian faith ; that the Christian 
had no authoritative teachers of his doctrines and practices. 
No : and this is evident in the conduct of the learned and 
pious Jews and Gentiles who have been aggregated to the 
fold of Catholicity, in all ages, not excluding the present. 1 
St. Paul, in a word, attached a specific meaning to the 
Scriptures ; those who corresponded with his teaching and 
believed, became Christians, and those who did not, re- 
mained unbelievers. So now, the Church gives her 
divine evidence as to the nature and meaning of the sacred 
word : those who believe become members of the Church, 
whilst the disbelievers remain to their own ruin, out of the 

1 The reader who has followed the history of conversions, will be 
familiar with the names of Drach, Katisbon, and others. 

p 2 



322 The English Reformation. 

fold. "Will the Protestant justify those who rejected 
Christ's word or St. Paul's on account of their own inter- 
pretations, interpretations opposed to that which had been 
divinely given ? If not, why in the name of common 
sense and religion appeal to the conduct either of the 
priests, or of the scribes, or of the Bereans? In the 
observations made years ago by Dr. Bilson, there is much 
good sense. " Where you say the Bereans are com- 
mended by the Holy Ghost, for not believing that which 
Paul spoke of religion, till they had examined by Scrip- 
tures, and seen whether the truth were so as he uttered, 
you speak not only unwisely and untruly, but if you 
would have Christians to follow that course, you show 
intolerable pride against the word of God : for the Bereans 
were commended (whereas yet they neither believed in 
Christ, nor acknowledged Paul's Apostleship) for their 
readiness to hear, and care to search, whether Paul spake 
true or no. This if now you assume to yourself over 
Paul's words or writings, you incur the crime of flat 
impiety. Paul's words to us that believe without further 
search or other credit, are of equal authority with the rest 
of the Scriptures, and not to believe him till we examine 
and see the truth of his doctrine is mere infidelity." 1 

There is only one other passage which can be urged by 
any sensible man in defence of the sufficiency of the Sacred 
Scripture, and that passage is the following : " But con- 
tinue thou in those things which thou hast learned, and 
which have been committed to thee : knowing of whom 
thou hast learned them ; and because from thy infancy 
thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which can instruct 
thee to salvation, through (£/«) the faith which is in Christ 

1 Survey of Christ's Sufferings, p. 84. 



The English Reformation. 323 

Jesus. All Scripture inspired by God is profitable to 
teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the 
man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good 
work." 2 This is another of the texts on which Protes- 
tantism would erect its treacherous principle — a principle 
which seems to hold out great promises — pleasing blossoms 
indeed, but blossoms which are never destined to yield 
good fruit. But the more the text is examined the more 
reckless will those appear who use it as the prop and sup- 
port of Protestantism. Take a survey of the Epistles of 
St. Paul to Timothy, and the deception will be manifest. 
1° St. Paul tells his faithful disciple " to keep that which 
hath been committed to his trust ;" 2° He bids him " hold 
fast the form of sound words," which he (Timothy) had 
heard from Paul, in faith and love which is in Christ 
Jesus : — "that good thing which was committed unto thee^ 
keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." 3° He 
tells him that heresies will arise, and thus he guards him 
against them : " Continue thou in the things thou hast 
learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom 
ano Tivog thou hast learned them " 4° He reminds him of 
his early knowledge of the Scriptures, a knowledge 
obviously derived from instruction because attained in 
infancy ; and he informs him of the use of this knowledge 
" through the faith which is in Christ Jesus." The Old 
Testament then would be useful, but useful in consequence 
of the teaching of Paul and the belief in the faith of Jesus 
Christ. 5° Next, Timothy is addressed as a man of God, 
as one who had been raised to the height of the ministry ; 
and it is stated that to him the Scripture will be " profit- 
able for teaching, for reproving, &c." Such is the pas- 

2 2 Tim. iii, 15 and seqq. 



324 The English Preformation. 

sage so confidently appealed to. But what does it prove ? 
It is adduced in evidence of the solibiblical system : but 
is there even a glimmering, the faintest ray of light to lead 
us to such a conclusion? The Epistle is written to a 
minister of religion, and to one who had been carefully 
taught by St. Paul. The person addressed is warned to 
adhere to the form of sound words which he had heard, 
and thus still the vain babblings of proud men. The 
Scriptures are mentioned, but they are those of the Old 
Law ; they are Scriptures whose meaning had been 
taught, Scriptures instructing to salvation but by means of 
faith in Jesus Christ, Scriptures profitable for the minister 
in many ways. This is stated in the objected passage, but 
this only. The assertions go not beyond the individual 
addressed or the order to which he belonged ; and not 
one of them bears even lightly on the Protestant declara- 
tion — " the Bible, and the Bible only, is the rule of 
Faith." 

The sixteenth century system then, stands self-con- 
victed. The Catholic reprobates it, 1° Because it is directly 
opposed to the positive injunction of Christ and the 
teaching of the one line of ministers which has come down 
from the Apostles to the present period. 2° He reprobates 
it because it has been made the ground, the root of all here- 
sies. 3° He reprobates it because it puts rationalism and 
infidelity, the denial of all mysteries, even the great mys- 
tery of the Trinity and of the consubstantiality of the Son, 
on a par with the maintenance of the most blessed and 
God-sent truths. 4° He reprobates it, because it renders 
Christianity an absolute impossibility for 1440 years, and 
a moral impossibility for all after periods. 5° He repro- 
bates it, because it treats God's written word with less 



The English Reformation. 325 

respect, than any Government, or even any scholar would 
allow either the laws of the realm or any able production 
to be treated. For would any Government make any 
body and every body the judge of the laws ? Would it 
allow the decisions of the bold or the timid, of the igno- 
rant or of the learned, to be conclusive of the question of 
the meaning of the law ; or would each erring commen- 
tator be allowed to justify his aberrations of intellect or 
deflections from every principle of right interpretation on 
the ground of his having taken upon himself the character 
of an expositor. "Would the merits of a Virgil's or a 
Homer's works, a Milton's, a Shakespeare's, or a Byron's, 
be allowed to depend by a discerning public on the deci- 
sions of the crowd. More, would the public be willing 
to declare, that all persons were qualified for the office of 
interpreters even of modern works, written in English 
and in England, and only for Englishmen. For example, 
would they be willing thus to test the intellectual worth 
of Wordsworth, or Southey, or even of Dickens ? And 
shall it still be proclaimed that all men are to be held up 
as fitting interpreters of the awful volume whose charac- 
teristics we have already described at some length ? 6° He 
reprobates it, because he sees the folly of allowing to each 
individual what is denied to the body of the Church by 
the Protestant ; and of seeming to suppose that that could 
have been appointed as the medium of faith, which, being 
dependant on a thousand casualties, could not beget cer- 
tainty in any one individual, much less in the mass of 
human beings around. I allude of course to the differ- 
ences which do and must exist between man and man, in 
talent, in leisure, in facilities of obtaining information, &c. 
7° He reprobates it, because its fruits are bad and bitter. 



326 The English Reformation. 

Under this system, unity of faith, Apostolicity and Catho- 
licity are absolutely annulled : sanctity is destroyed ; and 
instead of humility the worst kind of pride abounds. It 
has dried up the fountain of Sacramental graces; has 
caused the better gifts to be laughed at ; has pillaged and 
plundered the temples and altars of the living God ; has 
uttered words of blasphemy against every doctrine of 
Christ, and has made Christianity " a scandal to the Jews, 
and a folly to the Gentiles." 8° He reprobates it, in fine, 
because the Protestant thus divides the divine word; like 
the cruel Nestorian, making of one two — calling one the 
Word of God, and degrading the other to the level of the 
offspring of the mere creature, and calling it in derision 
the Word of Man, as if Christ's spoken word was not as 
holy as Apostles' written word, and as if the writing and 
not the revelatio?i was the important matter to be considered 
in the Word of God. 

Convinced of the necessity and institution of an ever 
enduring teaching authority in the Church, which is to 
teach all the days truth, we cannot be expected to submit 
to hear the Bible, which has been and is made the play- 
thing of the fancy, by Protestants, called the only rule of 
faith. Lit up by a lunar ray, the imagination of the 
solibiblist soon gives signs of madness — signs which could 
only admit of a doubt in matters connected with religion ; — 
delirious dreams are mistaken for revelations and the 
images of insanity for the apparitions of the spirit. If the 
Protestant wish to be the dupe of imagination, his prin- 
ciple will readily gratify his wishes ; or if he wish to enter 
upon a voyage of religious discoveries, he may plunge 
with his Bible into the wide sea of controversy : but let 
him not therefore fancy that his are the wishes of others, 



The English Reformation. 327 

and that others have the same ideas of religious discoveries. 
The Catholic knows the region of revelation; the road, 
leading to it, is to him clear, well defined and well trodden 
down ; he has his chart and his compass and a fixed light, 
ever guiding him to the Holy Land, — the land of truth, 
of certainty, of perfect peace. With these guides and with 
this end, he is perfectly contented. 

It will hardly be required of me now, to shew the 
falseness of the assertion contained in the sixth Article, to 
wit, that " Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary 
to salvation : so that whatever is not read therein, nor may 
be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it 
should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought 
requisite or necessary to salvation;" for already in the 
preceding pages the untenableness of the position has been 
demonstrated. Numerous articles of faith, articles of 
faith affecting nothing less than the Scriptures themselves, 
and the leading mysteries of religion, have been referred to 
as either not being contained in or not being proveable 
by the Sacred Scriptures, independently of an infallible 
exponent and guide. Texts which to some prove one 
thing, to another offer contradictory evidence; and he 
must be indeed ignorant who has not heard of the scores 
of interpretations which words simple as these, — " The 
Word was made flesh," " The Father is greater than I," 
" This is my body," " Whose sins you shall forgive they 
are forgiven," — have received from able and diligent 
readers of Holy Writ. The list might be lengthened to 
nearly any extent. For the sake of brevity I will limit 
my observations on the thus unproved Articles of faith, 
admitted by Protestants, to the following. 1° The violation 
of the divine command to keep the Sabbath, and the sub- 



328 The E?iglish Reformation. 

stitution of the Sunday in its stead, without the warrantee 
of any scriptural injunction for the change. No where 
does the Scripture state that the Saturday is not to be kept 
holy ; no where does it command the observance of the 
Sunday. It is silent, absolutely so, on this head : for I 
cannot suppose for a moment that any mortal possessed of 
mind sees either in the Resurrection of Christ, or in the 
reference to the holding on some occasions meetings on 
the first day of the week, either a divine precept to keep 
the Sunday holy, or a permission to labour and toil on 
the Sabbath. Further : it is no where written how the 
Christian seventh day is to be kept holy. The Christian 
does not keep it as the Jew did. He scruples not to light 
his fire and cook his dinner, and employ his servants in 
many works, as well as his horses and cattle. He measures 
not his steps, nor does he maintain that the divine threat 
has been uttered against such as attend not to the distance 
of the Sabbath' '$ journey. " Thus far and no further," 
may, he says, regard the Jew, but it affects not the 
Christian. Protestant ministers, and Protestant laymen, 
enjoy a social feast on the Sunday as much as on the week 
day, and find railroads and carriages easy and convenient 
modes of transit, even upon the Lord's day. They may 
denounce innocent games in which the poor unite ; they 
may affect to dread the sight of ball and bat, of cards and 
dice, and call their use a profanation of the Sabbath, — for 
to Judaize in this way is not uncommon, — but they see no 
harm in the bustle of the servant preparing the abundant 
repast ; they find no sin either in making their beasts toil, 
or in journeying forth to some distant spot for air and 
exercise. But how is this ? On what biblical principles 
do they proceed in consulting their appetites and tastes, 



The English Reformation. 329 

and ease and health, and in hurling their anathemas at the 
poor man, who, making neither servant nor beast toil, 
spends a few hours in unbending in invigorating sports, 
his overstrained body and cramped-up limbs. In a word, 
why does the Protestant write in letters of gold the words 
" Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day," and teach 
that those words are a divine command, whilst he himself 
neither observes the command as to time or circumstances, 
nor intends others to observe the precept which he himself 
had enunciated, as a heavenly ordinance. 

2° A still more important difficulty may be raised re- 
garding the validity of baptism given by heretics. It is 
well known what a dispute was raised by St. Cyprian on 
this very point. 1 He maintained, and so did scores of 
African prelates, not to refer to those of other coun- 
tries, 2 that Baptism was invalid unless administered by a 
sincere believer, by a member of the one Church. And 
what he maintained he endeavoured to prove. Scripture 
was cited by him, and cited with a facility peculiar to the 
talented and shrewd and learned prelate of Carthage ; and 
such was the force of the passages cited and appealed to, 
that St. Austin honestly allows that he would have taken 
the side of the martyr of Carthage, had there existed no 
authority greater than that of St. Cyprian, for the expo- 
sition and certain interpretation of the written word. 

That Christ commissioned the Apostles to confer the rite 
of Baptism is certain ; and that he had the power to limit 
the commission to whatever extent he chose is indis- 

1 On the details and documentary evidence of this controversy, see 
Conte Giuseppe Recco's Dissertation in Zaccarirts Storia Ecclesiastica, 
vol. vii, p. 207, &c. ; and Maleville's, ibid., vol. viii, p. 158. 

3 See Tillemont, note 44, on St. Cyprian. 



830 The English Reformation. 

putable ; but that he never uttered a syllable which has 
been recorded in the Scriptures indicative of a wish to 
extend the ministerial privilege, is I think a fact beyond 
cavil. Further, since there appears at first sight some- 
thing like an irregularity in the polity and economy of 
Christ, in the supposition that he made those out of his 
Church, the ministers of admission into the Church, those 
aliens from grace, the collators of the instrument of grace, 
one would rather infer with Cyprian that the administra- 
tion of Baptism has been strictly confided to the Church, 
and that those out of the Church have no power over the 
property of the Church, than maintain with the orthodox 
that others, even those who were aliens to and enemies of 
the Church, had the power to touch the holy thing and 
give it to another. It seems to be tossing the pearl to 
swine and the holy things to dogs, to allow the privilege. 
And yet, on this point, the very Christianity of the world, 
if Protestantism be deserving of a moment's attention, 
turns. As we have noticed, the entire downfall of Christi- 
anity was requisite for the upheaving of English Protes- 
tantism. It required a moral deluge, to efface the idolatry 
and wickedness of the Catholic world, and begin a new 
system and order of things. The ark which bore along 
Boleyn, the parent of spiritual joys and blessings, and 
Henry, Cromwell, and Cranmer, — the Sem, Cham, and 
Japhet of Protestantism, — rode on the element of universal 
ruin. All flesh had corrupted its way : save Henry and 
his virtuous associates, all were corrupt, and therefore 
came ruin. The record is heart-rending: "All men, 
women, and children, were at the moment, antecedent to 
the Reformation, and had been during the lengthened 
term of 800 years, Idolaters." How were these Idolaters 



The English Reformation. 331 

enabled to confer Baptism ? Whatever baptism Henry or 
bis bad, tbat they had from Idolaters ; or if they will, 
from the church of their condemnation. Were they bap- 
tized ? If so, can it be proved that Idolaters can baptize ? 
can it even be proved that the baptism of heretics is valid; 
nay, can it be even shewn, that by schism, the power is 
not forfeited. Can this be proved from Holy Writ ? No : 
it cannot. Anglicans cannot shew on their own principles 
that there is one single Christian in the world ; much less 
can they prove that there are any really ordained min- 
isters, or that — Baptism being the gate through which 
admission is gained into the body of the Church — there is 
any Church at all. Let the impugners of Catholicity read 
the lengthened articles of Bingham, in his Scholastic 
History of Baptism; 1 they will feel the importance of 
the subject, and will not wonder at the earnestness of that 
writer, to demonstrate from tradition, that St. Stephen was 
right in his opinion and St. Cyprian wrong. The Pope's 
decisions, and the orthodoxy of Rome, are sometimes at 
least, of infinite service to our common Christianity ! 

It were easy indeed to urge the difficulties connected 
with Baptism further ; for the validity of infant baptism, 
as is clear, cannot be satisfactorily proved — and anything 
less than a conclusive proof cannot satisfy the Christian 
where dogma is concerned — from Scripture ; for the only 
passages bearing on Baptism seem, especially when con- 
trasted with parallel passages of Holy Writ, to suppose 
reason and the power of election; nor can it be shewn 
that mere aspersion or affusion suffices for the validity of 
the baptismal rite: since the word £#7tt/?w, as well as the 

1 I think that that is the title of the treatise, which I read about 
thirteen years ago ; but to which I have not since had access. 



332 The English Reformation. 

mode of conferring Baptism undoubtedly made use of by 
trie Apostles, and their successors in the ministry for ages, 1 
involve the idea of immersion, or an actual and real 
plunging and burying, as it were, in the stream. But I 
pass over these and other matters, such as the denial by 
Calvin 2 and his of the necessity of using water at all, and 
of the denial by others of the form " I baptize thee in the 
name of the Father," &c. ; being quite content with the 
more important and striking points already referred to. 

3° Can even these three propositions of the Thirty-nine 
Articles be clearly established from the sacred Scriptures 
alone, 1° that in the unity of the divine nature, there are 
three persons of the same essence, power, and eternity, the 
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; 2° that the 
Son, who is the word of the Father, was begotten by the 
Father from eternity ; and 3° that the Holy Spirit pro- 
ceeds from the Father and the Son? I answer fearlessly 
that they cannot : nor will any person maintain the con- 
tradictory of this, who has ever read the Arian or Socinian 
or Greek controversies on these heads. The germs of 
doctrine which may be contained in the Scriptures on 
these subjects, require much development, ere they can be 
appreciated ; and the mere reconciliation of Scripture with 
Scripture in reference to the Trinity, to the eternity of the 
Son, and the personality and procession of the Holy Spirit, 
is above the power of most scholars. Beyond reconcilia- 
tion, much is required for the establishment of dogma; 
and that much as even Bull and greater men than that 

1 The ordinary mode of administering Baptism for nearly thirteen 
centuries, was immersion. 

2 Calvin interprets St. John iii, 5, by St. Matthew iii, 11. 
s See Articles i, ii, and v. 



The English Reformation. 333 

Bishop have allowed, can only be supplied by an authority 
extrinsic to and in itself independent of, the Holy Scrip- 
tures. In the last century, even Anglicans and Protestant 
Bishops openly denied some or all of the points referred 
to. Let the reader consult Clark's 4 Scripture Doctrine of 
the Trinity, in which numerous Scriptureal citations are 
adduced in favour of Arianism, and in general refer to the 
controversy carried on between him and Waterland, which 
ended in rather confirming than weakening Clark's con- 
victions ; let him study the works of the famous mathe- 
matical professor of Cambridge, Whiston, who openly 
preached the heresy of Arius ; or the Essay of Spirit^ by 
Bishop Clayton, who went so far as to propose to the 
Irish House of Lords to expunge from the Liturgy the 
Aihanasian and Nicene Creeds, and he will at once feel 
the difficulties by which, to these men's minds at least, the 
doctrines most sacred in Christianity, were surrounded ; 
and he will further admit, that if Scripture alone be the 
rule of faith, then no mystery is safe, and Christianity is 
reduced to a name. 

4° From the Scriptures alone, the 39th Article cannot 
be proved, which maintains the lawfulness of swearing : 
" We judge the Christian religion doth not prohibit, but 
that a man may swear when the magistrate requireth, in a 
cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the 
prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth." 
Every one knows that numbers even at the present day 

4 He was Queen Anne's Chaplain, and in 1709 was presented to St. 
James', Westminster. 

6 Some persons maintain that Clayton only wrote the Introduction to 
the work. Still the point is the same : Clayton approved of the work and 
published it at his own expense. See Biog. Diet, in verbo. 



334 The English Reformation. 

object to swearing at all, looking on such an act as useless 
and strictly inhibited. And indeed, if the mere words of 
Christ be considered, " Swear not at all . . . but let your 
communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is 

MORE THAN THESE COMETH OF EVIL ;" 1 or the Words of 

St. James : " Above all things, my brethren, swear not, 
neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any 
other oath ; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay ; 
lest ye fall into condemnation," 2 it will be indeed impos- 
sible to reconcile the Article with the Scriptures. Private 
interpretations are substituted for Holy Writ, and logical 
deductions for the divine declaration : and these are held 
up as God's word, though they are nothing else than the 
aberrations of ignorance and hallucinations of folly in the 
opinion of others who deny both the doctrines and deduc- 
tions alluded to. It may be useful here to point out the 
usual way of proceeding adopted by Protestants in arguing 
from Holy Scripture ; from my observations it will be 
made clear that the arguers either are impostors or grossly 
ignorant, and that those who believe in these texts as 
interpreted are sadly duped. I will prove my position by 
referring to a few leading articles of faith. 

\° One of the points of religion which Protestants are 
particularly fond of attacking, is the doctrine of the Inter - 
cessorship of the Saints. This they absolutely deny, and 
in proof of their denial and of the Catholic doctrine being 
anti-Scriptural, they refer to two well-known texts, to 
1 Tim. ii, 5, and 1 St. John ii, 1, 2. Is it not written, they 
say, " there is one mediator of God and man, the man 
Christ Jesus." In order to convince the reader that these 
words bear not in fact upon the point of doctrine attacked, 

1 Matt v. 34, Sec. 2 St. James v, 12. 



The English Reformation. 335 

and to show how here as elsewhere the Scripture is cor- 
rupted for an end, I will cite the entire text. " God/' 
says St. Paul, " wills that all men be saved, and that they 
come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one 
God, one mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus, 
who gave himself a redemption for all." Now, in this 
text not a word occurs, 1° relative to mere advocates and 
intercessors before the throne of God. The text of Scrip- 
ture speaks of one mediator ; and the solibiblist goes be- 
yond the Scripture in saying that this word means inter- 
cessor, such as the saints are said to be by the Catholics. 
That is his comment, his interpretation, it is not the word 
of God ; and God's word, not man's word, is or is said to 
be the Protestant rule of faith. 2° I assert further that 
plainly the meaning, assigned by the Protestant, is in 
direct opposition to the text of Scripture. St. Paul speaks 
of one mediator who gave himself a redemption for all : 
he speaks of a redeemer not of an intercessor simply, of 
one who has offered up himself as the ransom for the sins 
of mankind, and not of one who simply prays that the 
ransom offered for man may be applied to man. And 
really can any Protestant be so grossly ignorant as not to 
know that even Moses is called emphatically by St. Paul 
a mediator (Gal. iii, 19). It should, however, be noticed 
that the Church does not apply in her conciliary decrees 
the title of mediator to the saints, out of respect to Him 
who is emphatically the mediator of man and God. 

The second text, 1 St. John ii, 1* 2, is equally incon- 
clusive. " I write," says St. John, " to you that you may 
not sin. But if any one sin we have an advocate with the 
Father, Jesus Christ the just ; and he is the propitiation 



836 The English Reformation. 

for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of 
the whole world." Does not this passage 1° obviously 
speak of an advocate who is the propitiation for the sins of 
the world ; and if it do, is it not clearly beside the ques- 
tion ? For does the Protestant think that we admit two 
advocates of this character, one of whom is God and the 
other a mere creature ? No. But 2° put the case that the 
Protestant will obstinately apply the text to Christ simply 
as an advocate, and not as the advocate who is the Re- 
deemer too, what will he gain ? Nothing. Does the 
Catholic deny that Christ is an advocate, and the advocate 
emphatically ? Again, I answer no. For ever, is he the 
great advocate, the advocate to whom saints appeal, and 
from whom they obtain those favours for mankind which 
Christ in his mercy is pleased to give. He is the eternal 
advocate — the God-man; the saints are mere creatures 
interceding. The text if taken in the only sense — a sense, 
however, inadmissible — in which it can be twisted into an 
argument even by the sophist, is useless ; for whilst it 
includes positively Christ, it excludes none from the office 
of advocate. Allow Christ to be an advocate, and as far 
as advocacy is concerned, as much has been admitted as is 
asserted in the text. 

As another illustration, let us review the proofs of the 
assertion of the eleventh Article : " Wherefore that ice are 
justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine" 
They are taken 1° from Romans iii, 22, 28, Galatians ii, 
16, and v, 6, Eph. ii, 8 ; and 2° from St. John's Gospel iii, 
15, 16, &c. Now where 1° in these passages, or in 
any other available passage of Holy Writ, is it stated that 
man is justified by faith only. That faith is the root, the 



The English Reformation. 337 

principle of justification is distinctly taught by the Council 
of Trent/ that without faith it is impossible to please God, 
and that he who believes not will be condemned, is again 
admitted ; but still I seek in vain for either of these pro- 
positions that " faith alone suffices for salvation," and that 
" it only justifies." £° St. Paul, in the passages cited, as 
well as elsewhere, argues strenuously in maintenance of 
this truth, that Christians are not justified either by cir- 
cumcision or by the Judaical observances. Some converts 
seemed to be anxious to unite to the faith of Christianity 
the observances of Judaism ; these St. Paul opposes not 
incidentally, as it were, but at great length ; devoting five 
long chapters to the establishment of his position and the 
overthrow of the rites of the Synagogue. " Behold," he 
says, " I Paul tell you, that if you be circumcised, Christ 
will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man 
circumcising himself that he is a debtor to do the whole 
law. You are made void of Christ, you who are justified 
in the law ; you are fallen from grace. For we in spirit 
by faith, wait for the hope of justice. For in Christ Jesus 
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircum- 
cision; hut faith that worketh by charity." 2 And indeed, 
that this was the sense of St. Paul is admitted by Pretyman 
himself in his explanation of the eleventh Article of Angli- 
canism. 3 Nay more, he goes further. He shows how 
these words misunderstood were made the basis of the 
error Ci that faith in Christ, without works or deeds of any 
kind, that is, without the practice of moral virtue, was of 
itself sufficient to procure salvation," 4 and how St. James 
" reprobated and refuted the aforesaid interpretation, by 
proving that a man is justified by his xvorks, and not by 

1 Sess. vi, c. 8. 2 Galatians v, 2, 6. 3 Vol. ii, 261. 4 Ibid. 

Q 



338 Tfie English Reformation. 

faith only. . . . When, therefore, he says that a man is 
not justified hy faith only, he means that a man is not 
justified by a bare belief of the divine mission of Christ ; 
that belief must be accompanied by obedience, or it will 
be ineffectual, that is, as he says in another place, ( Faith 
without works is dead.' " 

Hence it appears that the words faith and wo?'ks are 
used in different senses by St. Paul and by St. James. 
St. Paul puts faith for the whole of Chiistianity, in contra- 
distinction to the law of Moses ; and the works which he 
declares to be unnecessary for justification are the rites 
and ceremonies of that law. On the other hand, by faith 
St. James means a bare assent to the truth in the Gospel ; 
and the works which he declares necessary for justification 
are the moral duties enjoined by the Gospel, and which 
are produced by faith. St. Paul therefore says, the reli- 
gion of Christ, if believed and obeyed, is sufficient to 
justify. St. James says, the bare belief of the religion of 
Christ, without conformity to its precepts, is not sufficient 
to justify. These two propositions are perfectly consistent 
with each other ; and the seeming contradiction in the 
passages themselves, arises from the circumstance just now 
noticed, namely, that the two Apostles in reasoning against 
different errors, use the same words in different senses. 
We may observe, in confirmation of our having rightly 
explained St. Paul's meaning of the word faith, that every 
one of his Epistles abounds with the most earnest exhorta- 
tions and strict injunctions to the practice of the moral 
duties, as forming an essential part of the Christian 
character, and as absolutely indispensable to salvation; 
and in his Epistle to the Eomans, he expressly says, that 
" God will render to every man according to his works ; 



Tlie English Reformation. 339 

tribulation and anguish unto every soul of man that doeth 
evil, and glory, and honour, and peace to every man that 
worketh good ;" and that " not the hearers of the law shall 
be just before God, but the doers of the law shall be 
justified." The word faith in this Article is used in the 
same sense in which St. Paul uses it." 1 So then, after all, 
faith only or alone does not justify ; for obviously faith is 
something less extensive than faith with works, with its 
fruits. That faith can exist alone is clear; that belief 
does not necessitate man and deprive him of the power of 
choosing evil and of acting against the conviction of his 
mind is equally clear ; then faith working by charity, as 
St. Paul denominates justifying faith, that faith which is 
obeyed and not practically slighted, is something very 
different from mere faith to which St. Paul thus refers in 
his useful and important letter to the Corinthians : " If I 
had faith to move mountains . . . and had not charity, I 
am nothing." 2 Since, then, this faith alone does not 
justify, the Article is proved to be false, and the argu- 
ments adduced in favour of the Protestant position are 
obviously null and void. In fact, who can remember 
the words of Christ in reference to the last day, i{ He shall 
render to every man according to his works," 3 or those 
others of St. Peter, "Wherefore, brethren, labour the 
more, that by good works, you may make your calling and 
election sure," 4 and those of St. James, "What shall it 
profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath 
not works ? Shall faith be able to save him ? Faith, if it 
hath not works, is dead in itself," 5 and not see clearly that 
the statement contained in the Article is as much opposed 

p. 263-4, 2 i Cor. xiii. 3 Matt, xvi, 27. 

4 2 Peter i, 10. 5 James ii, 14, 17. 



340 The English Reformation. 

to the Scriptures as it is to common sense. Pretyman's ex- 
planation and reconciliation is indeed sufficiently Catho- 
lic ; but it is a suicidal act in a Protestant to adopt such 
language, and append it, moreover, to the eleventh Article. 
The eleventh Article does maintain the solifidian system ; 
and in this sense was it originally defended by the re- 
formers. It is to repudiate the Article, to maintain that 
faith only justifies when accompanied by good works. 

Nor is the citation from St. John more conclusive. For 
1° the word only no where occurs in the passage adduced 
in relation to faith. 2° The words {i believe in Clirist " do 
not in the passage quoted, or in numbers of other places, 
simply mean a knowledge of the truths of Christianity, 
but a practical knowledge, or as St. Paul calls it, " a faith 
working by charity," or an operative and effective faith, a 
faith which is not contradicted by deeds. This is evident 
from the whole system of Christianity — a system which 
perfects in this and in other matters reason and common 
sense; and does not contradict them, by stating that know- 
ledge is all with God, and that he wholly disregards the 
agreement of belief and practice as a principle of morality, 
and a condition of salvation. 1 

I have already shown, too, how the first principle of 
Protestantism is not proveable from the Scriptures. For 
1° neither the inspiration, nor the genuineness, nor the 
authenticity, nor the canonicity of the sacred books can 
be demonstrated from Scripture. 2° The Scriptures 
no where say that they contain all truth ; nor 3° do 
they assert that the Bible is the only rule of faith. This 
has been already shown. And whoever will read the 
passages commonly cited, " Thy ivord is a lamp to my 

1 See 1 John iii, 15, and seqq. as also the Gospels passim. 



The English Reformation. 341 

feet" " The word of the Lord remaineth for ever" 
" These/' (signs cy^eTa,) " are written, that you may 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God ; and that 
believing you may have life in his name/' will at once 
admit the irrelevancy of such citations. They neither 
refer to the Scriptures of the new law, nor to the Scrip- 
tures in general; nor do they remotely assert that the 
Scriptures contain all truth, and that they are the only 
rule of and guide to faith. Having, however, in detail, 
shown to the reader the inapplicability of such passages, I 
deem it useless to go back to the subject again. 

Let any doctrine, indeed, advocated by Protestantism be 
fairly sifted, and it will be found eventually that it is not 
proved by Scripture only. Had not homilies and articles 
and prayer-book, or catechism, sermons and oral instruc- 
tion suggested or rather enunciated certain truths as 
divine, and pointed to certain words of Holy Writ as 
God's declaration in their favour, the Protestant would not 
have hit upon his system more than upon any other. 
Texts seemingly opposed to texts, not to refer to the con- 
sciousness of an inability to decide on questions which for 
centuries have divided Christendom, here and elsewhere, 
would have left his mind a moral blank : he might have 
become a Pyrrhonist or sceptic, as Blanco White, and 
Chillingworth, not to mention still greater names, became 
— but he might not have become a Protestant or a dis- 
coverer of the thirty-nine Articles in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures. 

From what has been said the reader will have deduced 
a few consequences of great importance to the Catholic. 
1° He will have inferred that Catholics do not receive the 
Protestant principle, because they look upon it as false, 



342 The English Reformation. 

and destructive of morality, of faith, and of that authority 
which Christ has hid man hear, and which conveys to 
mankind not simply the letter, but the heavenly inter- 
pretation. Protestants are satisfied with the heavenly 
hand-writing, ODl&l Spn K30 ; the Catholic requires the 
heaven-aided interpreter, in order to be assured of the 
hidden mystery. The one divides the word, the other 
receives the whole ; believing that not the writing but the 
inspiration, the revelation howsoever communicated, be the 
mode writing, or be the mode speaking, is the only impor- 
tant item to be considered. 2° Hence, again, he will infer 
how unjust it is to state as Protestants do state, that there- 
fore does the Catholic refuse to be judged by the Bible, 
because he shuns the light, rejects God's word, and knows 
that the Bible and Catholicity are irreconcileable. All 
this is neither more nor less than an unmitigated untruth, 
although generally credited. No such motives do, or 
could reasonably be supposed to actuate the Catholic. He 
refuses on higher motives, on motives, as sacred indeed to 
him as Christianity itself, to receive the divided word as the 
source of all truth, and the sole guide to orthodoxy. He 
believes that God has appointed not a book, but a living, 
teaching, infallible authority to be the means of arriving at 
the knowledge of His revelations ; and hence this and not 
that is the authority by which he abides. He has no 
choice : God has chosen and ruled all beforehand ; and to 
his decision he willingly clings, notwithstanding the scoffs 
and insults and jeers of a deluded crowd. Ignorant of the 
principle of salvation, the scoffer may look upon it as a 
sign of impotence and error to be attached to it : he may 
say " descendat de cruce," let the Catholic abandon his 



The 'English Reformation. 343 

condemned position : but the Catholic will not do so : for 
that which is scorned is the election of Christ, who is the 
wisdom and the power of God. 

Nor can any one suppose, who really thinks, that any- 
thing less than evidence could bind a Catholic to his 
principles. For what is the position of the Catholic here ? 
Is it not one of suffering, of incessant hardship and perse- 
cution ? Is not his a religion full of restraints on passion 
and carnal desires ? Is not his a nearly hopeless life as far 
as secular advantages are concerned ? Let the reader call 
to mind what is written in the statute-book against us ; let 
him see what we have been deprived of, and to what pri- 
vations we were subjected for centuries ; let him see how 
crippled is our religion down to the present hour, even the 
ministers of religion being forbidden to appear in public 
in the robes of religion under penalties, no marriage being 
lawful unless in the presence of a registrar, and the 
minister of another creed claiming even the power— a 
power which is exercised, too — to insult us by reading 
prayers over our dead ; let him remember the hatred 
recently displayed against us, and the bitterness felt to- 
wards us, a bitterness which manifests itself in tracts, in 
circulating defamers, male and female, and in the pulpits 
of the establishment where nothing is too outrageous for 
assertion in the presence of hundreds on hundreds of wit- 
nesses ; let him, in fine, remember how nearly every civil 
post of emolument is conferred on Protestants, and that the 
Catholic minister must be content to lead a life of hardship 
and of poverty, hardship as great and poverty as pinching 
as Apostles themselves had to endure, and he will allow 
that the accusation of recklessness is indeed reckless, and 
that indifference on our parts to truth, or a wilful oppo- 



844 The English Reformation. 

sition to it, is inexplicable under existing circumstances, 
on any hitherto discovered principles of psychology. " I 
have believed, therefore have I spoken," is the Catho- 
lic answer to the enquirer about his motives for adhe- 
ring to this rather than to that principle ; and for being 
a member rather of Catholicity than of Protestantism 
—easy, luxurious, wealthy, unrestrained Protestantism. 
" I have believed." 



345 



Cjragte % Craf jr. 



Oft the Zeal of Catholics in Transcribing and Circulating 
the Sacred Scriptures, and the Grounds of Opposition 
to the Bible Society. 



CONTENTS. 

Catholic Zeal in Transcribing, Translating, and Spreading the Sacred Scrip- 
tures, attested by Protestants, and evidenced by a Multiplicity of Manu- 
scripts in the various Libraries of Europe, &c— -Continuation and Extension 
of this Zeal after the Discovery of the Art of Printing. — Bibles published 
in every Ancient and nearly every Modern Language. — Continuous proofs 
of this point. — Zeal and favour of the Popes. — Catholic Commentators 
as contrasted with Protestant Annotators. — Origin of the Protestant 
Idea respecting Catholic Opposition to the Scriptures. — Origin of the 
Index, and History of the Fourth Eule. — This Eule both Wise and 
Truthful, and conformable to the Apostolic Teaching.' — Even Protes- 
tants approve of the Principle advocated in the Fourth Rule. — Modifica- 
tion of the Rule under altered circumstances. — Causes of the Opposition 
of the Pontiffs to the Bible Society. — These Causes just and commend- 
able. — Antagonism of the Members of the Bible Society. — This Anta- 
gonism clearly demonstrated. — Conclusion. 

In order to poison the public mind 5 the enemies of Catho- 
licity incessantly repeat the cry that we are opposed to the 
written word. They would have the people believe that 
to them the world is indebted for the Bible ; that to others 

q 2 



346 The English Reformation. 

it is a sealed, an inhibited book ; and that, therefore, does 
Rome condemn the Bible Societies, because Borne is op- 
posed to the Bible. Need I tell any scholar, that here 
there are as many misrepresentations as ideas ? But all are 
not scholars : for the benefit of such as are not, I will 
briefly expose the calumny. 

1° The world is not indebted to Protestantism for the 
Bible. Long before this religion was heard of, the Bible 
was known, and circulated in the languages of Greece and 
Rome. It was circulated in these languages so long as 
they were the languages of civilization and of literature. 
Earnestly and devotedly did Catholics toil and labour in 
transcribing the sacred volumes ; and so great was the 
number of copies thus produced by manual labour, one by 
one, that there was no country, no city, no cathedral or 
monastic establishment which was not possessed of the 
Bible. Each copy became the parent of others ; and the 
amount of Bibles existing prior to the discovery of printing 
will appear really wonderful to any one who bears in mind 
the labour and expense of transcription. " The Bible, it 
is true, was," as Merryweather observes, " an expensive 
work, but it can scarcely be regarded as a rare one ; the 
monastery was indeed poor that had it not, and when once 
obtained the monks took care to speedily transcribe it. 
Sometimes they only possessed detached portions, but 
when this was the case they generally borrowed of some 
neighbouring and more fortunate monastery the missing 
parts to transcribe, and so complete their own copies." 1 
" Occasionally I have met with instances where, besides 
several Biblia optima, the monasteries enjoyed Hebrew 
codices and translations, and numerous copies of the 

1 Menyweatker's Bibliomania in the Middle Ages, p. 24. 



The English Reformation. 347 

Gospels. We must not forget, however, that the tran- 
scription of a Bible was a work of time, and required the 
outlay of much industry and wealth. Brother Tedynton, a 
monk of Ely, commenced a Bible in 1396, and was several 
years before he completed it. The magnitude of the 
undertaking can scarcely be imagined by those unprac- 
tised in the art of copying ; but when this monk saw the 
long labour of his pen before him, and looked upon the 
well-bound strong clasped volumes, with their clean 
vellum folios and fine illuminations, he seemed well repaid 

for his years of toil and tedious labour Kings and 

nobles offered the Bible as an appropriate and generous 
gift, and bishops were deemed benefactors to their Church 
by adding it to the library." 2 And, indeed, whoever is 
acquainted with the works of Griesbach, Bentley, 
Michaelis, Mill, Simon, Kennicott, Wetstein, Blanchini, 
and Scholz on the numerous manuscripts of the Sacred 
Scripture ; whoever has directed his attention to the 
manuscript collections of the Bible in the Vatican, Am- 
brosian and Magliabecchian libraries in Italy, and to those 
which France possesses in the Mazarin, St. Genevieve, and 
royal libraries of Paris ; whoever has visited the libraries 
of Venice, of Vienna, Stuttgard, and Gottingen, or those 
of the Bodleian and British Museum, or of Trinity College, 
Dublin ; not to refer at greater length to the various col- 



2 Ibid, 26, 27. Several striking remarks on the subject in hand may be 
seen in the same work at pp. 54, 61, 68, 70, 88, 97, 109, 119, 130, 131, 133, 
140, 158-9, 161, 177, and seqq. Dr. Maitland in his " Dark Ages' 1 has 
anticipated Merry weather's remarks. So far from discovering that the 
Bible was an unknown book, he maintains that the evidence is all the 
other way; and he lashes D'Aubigny for his insensate ignorance or 
bigotry, or both. 



348 The English Reformation. 

lections which exist in nearly every city in Europe ;* who- 
ever has read the writings of the bishops, priests, monks, 
and lay historians of the middle and previous ages down 
to the era of the discovery of printing ; nay more, who- 
ever is acquainted with even the plays and the mysteries 
enacted here and elsewhere, will be struck by the amount 
of toil displayed in copying, in circulating, in studying, 
and in interpreting the sacred word. 2 

Nor did this zeal cease with the discovery of printing, — 
a discovery, like most others, by which society has been so 
greatly benefited, — made by Catholics. 3 Hallam proves 
that the Bible was the first book printed (Hist, of Litera- 
ture, vol. i, p. 96), and soon it was published in nearly 
every language. In the year 1488, a complete edition of 
the Bible in Hebrew appeared at Soncino, in the Cremo- 
nese territory in the duchy of Milan ; and at Brescia in 
1494. This edition was made use of by Luther (See I. G. 
Palm, de codicibus quibus Lutherus usus est). Soon, too, 

1 See De Rossis' Varice Lectiones for a complete list of Hebrew MSS. ; 
also Kennicott's Dissertatio prozliminaris, and the seventh and following 
volumes of the Classical Journal, for a list of the same class of MSS. 
existing in Britain at the present period. About the Greek MSS. the 
reader may receive much information from Griesbach, Bentley, and 
Scholz ; and Le Long, Blanchini, &c., may be usefully consulted in refer- 
ence to the old MSS. in other languages. 

2 For an account of the reverence formerly shown to the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and the care and expense lavished on the Bible, the reader may 
consult Zaccaria, Dissertatione di Storia Eccles. vol. vii, 276. 

3 The observations of his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, regarding one 
class of discoveries and by one country, have been too much for Protestant 
England. Hence the comments on his speech at Leeds, but without the 
text. I might add, that Father Fabri, S.J, was unquestionably the dis- 
coverer of the circulation of the blood. See Paulian's Diet, de Physique, 
Art. Fabri. 



The English Reformation. 349 

a Cardinal, Cardinal Ximenes, undertook the expensive 
and unprecedented task of printing a polyglott. The 
printing of it commenced in 1504, and was happily termi- 
nated in 1517. This polyglott contains an independent 
Hebrew text, which became the basis of several other 
editions, as also the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and a Chaldee 
paraphrase. The New Testament contains the Greek 
text and the Latin Vulgate. This noble work, worthy of 
the proudest sovereign of Europe, was undertaken by a 
Cardinal, and was dedicated to the patron of learned men, 
Leo X. It was in six volumes, folio. The example of 
Ximenes was a stimulus to others. In 1569 — 1572, ap- 
peared the Antwerp polyglott, in eight volumes, folio ; 
Philip II, King of Spain, defraying the expenses of this 
colossal undertaking. In addition to the text of the Com- 
plutensian polyglott, were added another Chaldee para- 
phrase of a part of the Old Testament, a Syriac version of 
the New Testament, and the Latin translation of Pagninus 
amended by the editor Arias Montanus. Nor did the 
impulse end here. The Parisian polyglott appeared in 
1628 — 1645 in ten volumes, folio. The work was under- 
taken at the expense of a Catholic layman, who afterwards 
became a Priest, of the name of Guido Michael le Jay. It 
comprises all that had previously been published in the two 
Catholic polyglotts, but has in addition an Arabic version 
of the Old and New Testament, a Syriac version likewise 
of the Old Testament, and the Samaritan Pentateuch. 

After such a reference to zeal, reckless of expense and 
toil, it will be nearly useless to allude to any ordinary 
undertaking in connexion with the publication of the 
Greek and Latin Scriptures. Suffice it then to say, that 
the Aldine edition of the Septuagint appeared at Venice 



350 The English Reformation. 

in 1518, and the Eoman after the Vatican Codex, in 1586. 
Of the early printing of the Latin text, the following 
observation, made by a learned Protestant, offers sufficient 
evidence: " After the invention of printing, the Latin 
Bible was the first considerable work that was sent to the 
press." Afterwards, editions of a critical character were 
published in Paris in 1528, 15-32, 1534, 1540, &c; at 
Louvain in 1547; at Antwerp in 1565 and 1574, and again 
at Louvain in 1573 and 1586. Rome issued a splendid 
edition in 1592, and as every one knows, hardly is there 
a country which has not published numerous editions of 
this authorised version, which has been uniformly used in 
disputations, in preaching, and in expositions of the sacred 
text, during the last two hundred and sixty years. 1 

But were there translations of the Scripture in the ver- 
nacular tongues ? Translations ? Yes indeed — there were 
translations in abundance in manuscript before the art of 
printing was discovered, and after this invention had been 
rendered generally available, copies were struck off by 
thousands, in nearly every language of civilized Europe. 
To this point I will briefly draw the reader's attention, for 
to many the subject may prove both novel and highly 
instructive, and corrective of prejudices which have been 
carefully propagated by Protestants. 

1° German Bibles. The first translation of the Bible 
into German, is that of Ulphilas, Bishop of the Goths, 
about the year 360. Only portions of this translation are 
known to exist; but it is not improbable that in course of 
time the entire translation may be discovered. The student 
knows that down to the year 1819, only two manuscripts 

1 See Le Long, 1. c, and De Bure's " Bibliographie Instructive," i, 
32, 69. 



The English Reformation. 351 

of this translation had been discovered, one of which is 
preserved at Upsal in Sweden, and is called the Codex 
Argenteus? from its silver letters, which are written on 
vellum of a violet colour, whilst the other, which Knittel 
discovered in 1756, is to be found in the library of the 
Duke of Brunswick at Wolfenbuttel. 3 But in 1819, the 
illustrious Cardinal Mai discovered on several palimp- 
sests the following Epistles : the Epistle to the Romans, 
the first and second to the Corinthians, the first and 
second to the Thessalonians, those to the Galatians, Phi- 
lippians, Colossians, and Ephesians ; the first and second 
to Timothy; and the Epistles to Titus and Philemon. 
Besides, there were two pages of Esdras, and four of 
Nehemias; and abundant proofs in addition, that the 
common belief that Ulphilas had not translated the books 
of Kings, for fear of enkindling the martial fury of the 
Goths, was altogether unfounded. 4 As Hallam rightly ob- 
serves : " In the eighth and ninth centuries, when the 
Latin Vulgate had ceased to be generally understood, 
there is no reason to suspect any intention in the Church 
of Rome, to deprive the laity of the Scriptures. Trans- 
lations were freely made Louis le Debonnaire is said 

to have caused a German version of the New Testament 
to be made. Olfrid, in the ninth century, rendered the 
Gospels, or rather abridged them into German verse." 5 . . . . 

2 It was found in the abbey of Werden, in Westphalia. This MS. con- 
tains the four Gospels, but with numerous and important lacunae. 

3 The best edition of all these fragments of Ulphilas is that of Zahn, 
published at Weissenfels in 1805. 

4 See Mai's " Ulphilge partium ineditarum in Ambrosianis palimpsestis 
ab A'. Maio repertarum, specimen." Mediolani 1819. 

5 View of Europe during the Middle Ages, p. 58, &c. 



352 The E?iglish Reformation. 

Besides these, numerous manuscripts of every age exist, 
through which the changes affecting the German language 
may be distinctly traced. It is natural to suppose that in 
the country where printing was discovered, the Bible 
would soon appear in print. The first printed Bible ex- 
tant is that of Nuremberg, 1447, and a second appeared 
in 1466; but the names of the authors of both editions 
are undiscovered. The edition of 1466 was so frequently 
and rapidly reprinted, that prior to the publication of 
Luther's Bible, it had been issued no fewer than sixteen 
times : once at Strasburg, five times at Nuremberg, and 
ten times at Augsburg. Three distinct editions too ap- 
peared at Wittemberg in 1470, 1483, and 1490 ^ so that 
before Luther was heard of or even born, the Bible, 
judging from the numerous editions published, must have 
been well known and well read. 2 Judsre then of the 
audacity of a modern writer, D'Aubigny, who has dared 
to insult the public, by stating that "the Bible was an 
unknown book" in the year 1517, and that Luther had 
never seen it till his twentieth year ! 3 And yet has not the 
inaccurate Home, who though an authority with Anglicans 
is one of the most unsatisfactory writers either on the 
proofs^ of Scripture or on the mere facts connected with 
manuscripts and printed copies, given his sanction to this 

1 See Seckendorf' s Comment in Luther, p. 204. 

2 Le Long's Bib. Sac. t. i, p. 354 and seqq. Audin's Life of Luther, 
p. 266; and the Dublin Review, No. 2, July 1836, p. 378, &c., may be 
consulted on the printed editions. 

3 Hist, of Reformation, vol. i, p. 131. 

4 I find that several authors have recently expressed regret on finding 
such a man using the feeble arguments he does in reference to the Inspi- 
ration, &c, of the Sacred text. Home's day is over : and his Introduction 
will be hereafter, in the eyes of scholars, in very truth only a Horn-look. 



The English Reformation. 353 

error, by suppressing all reference to the numerous editions 
which preceded Luther, though he had Le Long's work 
before him to teach him better ? 

The zeal of German Catholics has ever remained the 
same, for the sacred writings : and Protestants have 
admitted the singular merits of the more modern Catholic 
versions of Schwarzel and Brentano and AlliolL These 
men, and men like them, preserve the integrity of books 
and text, whilst thousands of others in Germany are lop- 
ping away book after book, and reducing the whole to a 
myth : — a Bible without revelation, or mystery, or mira- 
cle ! 

2° French Bibles. Simon observes, in reference to this 
class of translations, that " it is affirmed in France that part 
of the Bible was translated into French under Charles the 
5th of France ; and M. Charles du Moulin declares that 
he had seen some manuscript fragments of it. Besides, 
they of Geneva have at present in their public library a 
French translation of the whole Bible, made by a Canon of 
Aire towards the end of the thirteenth century. I believe 
this to be the same translation which Robert Olivetan 
speaks of, and which was read at Geneva before Calvin's 
reformation, who set up another in its place." 5 Besides 
the "Bible historiale" of Des Moulins, which appeared 
about 1478, and which was reprinted sixteen times prior 
to 1546, twelve editions being printed at Paris and four at 
Lyons, Le Fevre published an edition of the sacred Scrip- 
tures in 1512. Edition after edition eventually appeared, 
as may be seen in Simon's writings on the Scriptures; and 
no one can be ignorant of the merits and circulation of the 

s Simon's Hist Crit. du V. T. Book ii, c. 22. 



354 The English Reformation. 

translations of De Sacy, Corbin, Amelotte, Maralles, 
Godeau, and Hure. 

3° Flemish Bibles. Before 1210, the Bible was trans- 
lated into Flemish, if we may rely on the authority of 
Usher, by James Merland. In the Bodleian there is a 
manuscript of the date of 1472. Eventually, as even 
the writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica allows, the 
Elemish Bibles of the Catholics became very numerous, 
though printed in general without the authors' names 
down to the year 1548, when Vinck 1 published his trans- 
lation at Louvain. The first printed edition appeared at 
Cologne in 1475, and was reprinted at least seven times 
before 1530, whilst the edition of Antwerp, of 1528, was 
reprinted eight times in seventeen years. The later edi- 
tions of De Witt, Laemput, and Schurr, testify as well to 
the biblical knowledge as to the piety of the learned 
Catholics of Elanders. 

4° Spanish Bibles. But had the Spaniards any copies 
formerly of the sacred Scriptures? Yes. And, not to 
refer to older versions, for this is in fact useless, in 1405 
the whole Bible was translated either by St. Vincent 
Ferrer or by his brother Boniface. This translation was 
printed at Valencia in 1478, with the formal permission 
of the Inquisition, and reprinted in 1515, 2 and of it nu- 
merous editions were published at Antwerp, Barcelona, 
and Madrid, Eventually, however, it was superseded by 
the labours of Scio de S. Miguel, whose translation has 



1 Article, Bible. Others call this person Van Wingh ; which is indeed 
the correct mode of writing his name. 

2 See Simon, 1. c, and Dublin Review, 1. c. Simon refers to De Valere 
for his statement. 



The English Reformation. 355 

been republished even by Bagster in 1823, on account of 
its elegance and fidelity. 

5° Italian Bibles. As early as 1290, Jacobus a Voragine, 
one of the lengthened line of illustrious Archbishops who 
have ruled the see of Genoa, published the entire Bible in 
Italian. Another translation was prepared by the Camal- 
dolese Monk, Nicholas Malermi, which was printed at 
Venice in 1471, and again in Rome in the same year, 
but with considerable alterations. It was so eagerly pur- 
chased, that prior to the year 1525, no fewer than thirteen 
editions of it had issued from the press. They were all 
published with the permission of the Inquisition, as were 
also eight other editions which were printed before the 
year 1567. The most approved and accurate edition, 
however, of the Scriptures was executed by the Arch- 
bishop of Florence, Martini. The New Testament was 
published in 1769, and the Old in 1779. During the last 
seventy years, this copy has been reprinted in every size, 
scores of times. It was hailed by the head of the Catholic 
Church, Pius VI, as well as by the rest of the Italians. 
The Pontiff praised the zeal and ability of the translator 
in a letter which is now ordinarily prefixed to the English 
Catholic versions of the Scriptures, 3 and exhorted the 
faithful to avail themselves of the fruits of the learning 
and industry of the venerable Archbishop. 

6° English versions. Owing to the change of dynasty 
and language, which was so frequent here, it will afford 
little matter for surprise, if comparatively few editions of 
the sacred Scriptures appeared in the vernacular. Briton 

3 See for example the Bible dedicated to Dr. Brampston, in fol. ; the 
Testament published in Belfast, Duffy's Bibles, &c. On the Italian ver- 
sions see the Dublin Keview, 1. c. 



356 The English Reformation. 

and Saxon, Dane and Norman, rapidly succeeded one 
another, and even ,long after the establishment of the 
Norman power, the language of France was considered 
the language of civilization, and together with Latin, of 
law and literature. Still, that parts at least of the sacred 
Scriptures were translated into Saxon, is certain; for 
Venerable Beda was occupied in dictating his translation 
of the Gospel of St. John, down to a few hours before his 
saintly death. To what extent, however, his labours 
went is a matter of great uncertainty; for whilst some 
maintain that he only translated the Gospels, others as 
positively assert, that the Saxons were indebted to him 
for a version of the whole of the sacred Scriptures. In 
the Cottonian library at the British Museum there are two 
Saxon manuscripts ; one containing the Psalms, the other 
the sacred Gospels. The Rushworth Gloss at Oxford, 
too, contains the Gospels. Besides these, there are still 
numerous manuscripts remaining, 1 in which occur trans- 
lations of various portions of the Bible. By iElfric the 
homelist, a very considerable portion of the sacred Scrip- 
tures was translated, at the entreaty of his patron Ethel- 
wcerd. This Ethelwoerd had an imperfect copy of an 
English version of Genesis, which he was anxious to see 
completed ; and judging that no one was more fitted for 
the task than iElfric, him he asked to gratify his wishes. 
Other circumstances impelled iElfric to prosecute his task ; 
and it is quite clear, that very few books indeed of the 

i Of the wanton destruction of British manuscripts by the Saxons, and 
of the Saxon by the Danes, no one is ignorant. But the English manu- 
scripts were equally recklessly destroyed at the Reformation. Ship loads 
were sold as waste -paper, and those which were not sent to the Continent 
were torn to pieces. See Leland's, &c. account of this sad event. 



The English Reformation. 357 

Scriptures escaped his attention. 2 Usher and "Wood are 
positive that Trevisa published a translation of the whole 
of the Bible. Assuredly, as Sir Thomas More re- 
marks, there was a translation in English which anti- 
cipated that of the inconsistent and vacillating and 
disappointed "Wyclifife. In 1582 the New Testament 
was published at Kheims, from the MS. of Allen, 
Martin, and Bristow, and the Old Testament was com- 
pleted at Douay in 1609, 1610. Numerous editions, 
more or less corrected and amended, have been published 
of the entire Bible by the Catholics, in England, Ireland, 
and Scotland; and notwithstanding the numerous diffi- 
culties by which we are surrounded, our Bibles, though 
considerably larger than those circulated by the Protes- 
tants, and not printed at a price ruinous to all engaged on 
the work, 3 are now nearly as cheap as those sold by the 
various branches of Protestantism. 

"When further it is remembered that the first Christian 
edition of the Samaritan Pentateuch was published by 
Catholics; that they were the first, too, to print and 
spread far and wide the Greek, Arabic, Syrian, and iEthio- 
pic versions, and the Chaldean paraphrases; that copies 
innumerable of the Bible, in the language best understood 
by all scholars, have been circulated by them — of course 
I refer to the publication of the Vulgate ; when, again, it 

2 See Lingard's interesting account of the whole proceeding, in his 
Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. ii, 315 and seq.; as also Merryweather, I.e., 
p. 48-9. 

3 The reader will remember the said expose of the system pursued to- 
wards printers, &c, engaged on the Bibles of the Bible Society. It was 
proved that the most cruel conduct was pursued towards the workmen and 
workwomen ; and that the Bible maxim, " The workman is worthy of his 
hire," was entirely overlooked. 



358 The English Reformation. 

is remembered that from the Propaganda Press at Home, 
Bibles or portions of Bibles have issued in the languages 
of one hundred and sixty-three different peoples {See 
KinsellcCs Letters, p. 28) ; that Houbigant was rewarded 
by a Pope for his biblical researches ; that Kennicott ob- 
tained in the Vatican that assistance which enabled him to 
publish his critical work at the Clarendon Press in 17T6 ; 
and that men like Rossi have spent their lives over the 
palimpsest, and others like Fabricy have written volume 
on volume to stimulate the learned to labour hard in their 
Bible task ; when, in fine, it is felt and known, as it should 
be, by every scholar, that to the Catholics the world is 
indebted not only for the letter of the Scripture, but also 
for every kind of commentary which may facilitate the 
acquirement of a thorough knowledge of the text, whether 
that knowledge regard the readings, the topography , the 
chronology , the customs, the currency, the royal or sacer- 
dotal duties, the faith and practices of the believer or of 
the infidel, the natural history contained in the sacred 
pages, or the history of hingdoms and dynasties, of nations 
and individuals long since passed away ; — and are not the 
works of Petau, Ribera, Pineda, Ugolini, A, Lapide, 
Menochius, Bonfrere, Tirinus, Salianus, Pradus and 
Villalpandus, Agelli, Justiniani, Lamy, Houbigant, 
Celada, Maldonatus, Estius, Cajetan, Toletus, Mariana, 
De Sacy, Calmet, Ackermann, "Win dis chin ann, Secchi, 
Patrizzi, and Scholz illustrative of the sacred history, of 
European celebrity ?— can any one hereafter be so reck- 
less of truth or so anxious to stultify himself in the eyes 
of every respectable man, as to assert that Catholicity is, 
I will not say inimical to the Scriptures, but not anxious 
in every available way to show her esteem and reverence 



The 'English 'Reformation. 359 

for, and knowledge of, the sacred volumes in all their de- 
tails. Puny are the efforts, notwithstanding all modern 
boastings, of Protestantism, when compared with those of 
Catholicity, in reference to the Bible ; and were those 
who either speak against or who ignore the claims of our 
authors to zeal and knowledge, stripped of their borrowed 
plumes ; were the writers on the Psalms — Home and 
others — compared with Agelli and Bellarmine ; the mo- 
dern commentators on Job examined by the side of 
Pineda, and those on Ezechiel contrasted with the refined 
and learned observations of Pradus and Villalpandus ; in 
fine, were Clarke and other commentators of a hundred 
names stripped of the treasures stolen from a Calmet or a 
Lapide or Maldonat, it would soon be seen what are the 
merits of Protestants, and what the independent merits of 
Catholics as scholars, able, learned, profound: scholars 
fitted for the task of expounding Holy Writ. 

How then happens it, it will be asked, that Catholics 
are looked upon as enemies of the written word ; why is 
it stated and believed that they are afraid of the Bible be- 
cause conscious of the discrepancy which exists between 
the teachings of the Church and the teachings of the written 
revelation, if facts be such as have been hitherto alleged ? 
This query can only be answered in one way ; and in a 
manner by no means flattering to the judgment or veracity 
of our opponents. But the truth is this : these false asser- 
tions are the offspring of hatred, and originate in an un- 
willingness to judge favourably of a party which is hated 
because dreaded, and dreaded because injured. As every 
kind of base accusation was urged against the new law by 
the enemies of Christianity, and was when once uttered 



360 The English Reformation. 

credited and widely circulated, 1 and made the basis of a 
superstructure of accumulated wicked allegations, so is it 
now : a falsehood is uttered by one, it is believed by the 
many, and the many add such additional and varying 
circumstances that at last the original mis-statement is 
multiplied a hundred fold : it has increased in malignity, 
in intensity, in cause, in effect; in every way it has 
changed. The best of motives, and the holiest of reasons, 
— reasons which religion and a zeal for faith dictated, are 
explained away in the most unfavourable manner ; what 
was done for God is made to appear to have been done in 
opposition to him ; and what was suggested by a love of 
truth and a reverence for things sacred, and a desire to 
secure the salvation of men, is held up as a conspiracy 
against revelation, piety, and man's eternal interests. In 
elucidation of this matter, I will endeavour to lay before 
the reader a few facts, which will at once more distinctly 
point out and meet the Protestant difficulty, which has 
been fostered to such an extent, and dwelt on as something 
very remarkable. 

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the pastors 
of Catholicity beheld with regret the dissemination of 
heretical works — of works dangerous both to faith and 
morals. To facilitate the detection of this class of pro- 
ductions, and thus to put the Catholic on his guard, 
several zealous theologians published lists of works which 
were deemed by them to be particularly dangerous and 
prejudicial. Charles V of Spain was pleased with the 
idea, and accordingly he advised the theological faculty of 

1 See on this head my work on " The Jesuits" p. 39, &c., or Reeve's 
Apologists of Christianity passim. 



The English Reformation, 361 

Louvain to publish a catalogue of those works either posi- 
tively heretical or suspected of heresy, and which might be 
considered most dangerous at that critical period. The 
work was accordingly undertaken and published, with the 
Emperor's authority, in 1546. Another edition eventually 
appeared under the same sanction in 1556. 2 Encouraged 
by the imperial example, the Pontiff Paul IV, ordered the 
heads of the Holy Inquisition, in 1557, to prepare for the 
press a similar work. Accordingly they did so : and the 
result of their toils appeared two years later, with the ex- 
press approbation of his Holiness. This work is divided 
into three parts : the first part containing a list of those 
authors whose publications were altogether forbidden ; the 
second a list of those particular works of any author which 
alone were prohibited ; and the third consisting of some 
anonymous writings, and a clause forbidding all such 
works written since 1519. This clause was followed by 
the names of sixty printers, whose works, irrespective of 
author, subject, &c, were absolutely inhibited. As Spon- 
danus observes, this Pope was the first to issue such a 
sweeping condemnation. 3 

Nor did the zeal of the pastors to secure their people 
against the errors and demoralization of the sixteenth cen- 
tury stop here. In the fourth session of the Council of 
Trent, held February 26, 156£, it was proposed that some 
persons should be selected to examine the works of 

2 Edicta Flandrise, 1. i, rub. 7. 

3 Ad ann. 1557. " Primus extitit qui universale™, omnium pemiciosorum 
librorum cujuscumque argumenti etiam profani, a quibuscumque etiamque 
religione Catholicis Scriptorum, vel etiam a suspectis Typographis de 
quacumque arte editorum Indicem contexere studuerit ; cum ad eum usque 
diem, librorum prohibitiones tam a Pontificibus quam ab Imperatoribus 
factse, nunquam excessissent terminos librorum hsereticorum. . . ." 

R 



362 The English Reformation. 

heretics, and report to the Council their ideas relative to 
the best course to be adopted for obviating the evils 
resultant from such productions. After some discussion 
the task was committed to Drascovitius, the imperial 
orator for the kingdom of Hungary, to Trivinsanus, patri- 
arch of Venice, and to a committee of four archbishops, nine 
bishops, two generals of religious orders, and one abbot ; 
but with this clause, " That the index should not be pub- 
lished before the termination of the Council." l The task 
was entered on with energy ; but on account of its extent 
and the desire which was universally felt of bringing the 
Council to a close as early as possible, it was not con- 
cluded time enough to receive the approbation of the 
assembled fathers. Before, however, parting, the fathers 
decreed that " whatsoever had been done should be laid be- 
fore the most holy Roman Pontiff; and that it should by his 
judgment and authority be terminated and made public." 2 
In conformity with this decree, passed at the very last 
sitting of the Council, the Index was drawn up and pre- 
sented to Pius, as he testifies in his brief Dominici gregis. 
But the authors went beyond the instructions they had 
received. Observing in the former Index of Paul 
" several things which required explanation," they com- 
posed, after having maturely and quietly weighed the 
matter, and asked the advice of the most learned theolo- 
gians of every nation, the ten rules of the Index, as 
Forerius 3 observes, who was the secretary to the congre- 

1 Spondanus ad ann. 1562, § 17. 

2 " Prcecipit ut quidquid ab illis prcestitum est, sanctissinio Eornano 
Pontifici exhibeatur ; et ejus judicio atque auctoritate terminetur et 
evulgetur." — Sess. xxv, c. 21, Concil. Trident. 

3 See Forerius' Preface. 



The English Reformation. 3§o 

gation engaged on the Index. These rules were published 
with the Index, which appeared on the 24th March, 1564> 
three months after the Council had been brought to a 
close. 

From what has been said it follows, 1° that the very 
notion of an Index originated in the unfortunate circum- 
stances of those days. Lutherans and others were endea- 
vouring to corrupt the public mind ; and Catholics strove 
to shut out heresy in itself and in its works. 2° The 
Index can only be entitled the Index of the Council of 
Trent in a wide sense. 3° The ten rules of the Index 
cannot in any way he called the rules of the Council of 
Trent. This observation has escaped the notice of almost 
all writers opposed to the Index ; still it is not new, for 
St. Charles Borromeo drew a broad line of demarcation 
between the origin of the Index and the rules of the 
Index — and than his no higher authority can be obtained 
or indeed desired. In the fifth synod which he held at 
Milan he says that the Index was published by order of 
the Council of Trent ; but of the rules he observes in the 
first synod, that they emanated from those to whom the 
task of drawing up the Index had been entrusted. 4 When 
once the Index was published, it became the duty of the 
Inquisition to guard it and its rules. But this body was 

4 " Ab iis qui illi negotio a Saerosancto Con. Trid. prsefecti fuemnt." — 

Van Espen, vol. i, p. 209, and seqq. 1 know, indeed, that even writers 

of eminence, as Possevinus in appar. verbo Index ; Sixtus Senens, 1. vi, 
annot. 152 ; the faculty of Paris in 1567 ; the Council of Toulouse in 1590, 
&c., call the rules the rules of the Council of Trent ; and this opinion is 
warmly defended by Hamey in his work, " De Sacra Scriptura linguis 
vulgaribus legenda ;" but it is clear that the expressioi is inaccurate, and 
directly opposed to the positive statements of even he framers of those 
laws. 



364 TJie English Reformation. 

already too much engaged ; hence the saintly successor of 
Pius IV — Pius V 1 — instituted the Congregation of the 
Index, which consists of a numerous body of cardinals, 
bishops, prelates, and other learned men, to which he 
assigned the guardianship of the faith and morals of 
Catholics against the covert or open attacks of heresy and 
infidelity, through the medium of the press. 

The rules of this Congregation have naturally enough 
been severely handled by heretics of every grade. Formed 
with the express object of guarding the faithful against 
error, and the subtle poison communicated through 
writings of varying character, and of stopping the circula- 
tion and the purchase of those books, it might naturally be 
expected that they would be attacked in every way, regard 
neither being paid to judgment, justice, or truth. 

But the fourth rule, regarding the sacred Scriptures in 
the vernacular, is the one which has afforded the enemies 
of Rome the most specious pretext, for insulting and de- 
nouncing Catholicity. It has been to heretics what the 
Sabbath was to the Jews. As in consequence of Christ's 
mode of observing it, his enemies took occasion to calum- 
niate and vilify, and justify their hatred and persecution 
of, the Messias, and further to set at nought all the 
miracles and other evidences which were day by day laid 
before them of the advent of the Emmanuel; so on account 
of the method pursued in regard to the Scriptures by the 
framers of the rules of the Index, Protestants have shut 
their eyes to the light, have denounced Christ's Church, 

1 Van Espen says Sixtus V, but this is a mistake. See Devoti, vol. iv, 
p. 103, and Scotti's Problenri di Politica, &c, vol. ii, on the language of 
the ritual. 

2 See Cracas for 1853. 



The English Reformation. 365 

and assigned, as erst, all miraculous evidences and other 
heavenly interpositions to fraud and jugglery and satanic 
influences. Christ and Christ's spouse have ever been 
treated similarly. This is the rule referred to. " Since 
it is manifest from experience, that if there be no restric- 
tion with respect to reading the holy Scriptures in the 
vulgar tongue, more harm than good will come from it, on 
account of man's presumptuous rashness: therefore it 
shall depend on the discretion of the Bishop or the Inqui- 
sitor, on the recommendation of the Parish Priest or the 
Confessor, to give permission to read, in their own lan- 
guage, any version of the holy Scriptures, which has been 
made by Catholic authors, to those whom they shall know 
to be in a state to receive no detriment from the perusal, 
but an increase of faith and piety : it is required that the 
permission be given in writing." To this rule our adver- 
saries point in scornful derision; and from it they deduce 
their charges of hatred and aversion, on the part of Catho- 
lics, to the sacred Scriptures. To me it appears clear, that 
this Io triumphe, this poean of victory, is as ill-timed as it 
is ill-judged. 

For 1° What are the positions maintained in this rule ? 
These : 1° that experience had proved that more harm than 
good had resulted from an unrestricted reading of the 
Scriptures in the vernacular. 2° That the cause of this 
was not indeed the sacred text, but the rashness and pre- 
sumption of the reader; and 3° that those therefore should 
alone be allowed to read this class of translations who 
would be benefited and not injured by the persusal. Now 
can any one deny that these propositions are full of truth 
and full of wisdom, when examined either abstractedly, or 
according to those principles in which every Catholic does 



366 Tlie English Reformation. 

and must believe, if he be a sincere member of his 
Church ? I might lay great stress on this latter circum- 
stance, for it is monstrous to allow the Protestant to assume 
the truth of his solibiblical system, whilst examining the 
conduct which Catholic prelates should pursue in refer- 
ence to the flocks committed to their care. Catholics legis- 
late on Catholic principles, and not on those maintained 
by Protestants ; they legislate for believers, for those in, 
not for those out of, the Church. Did we look upon 
faith as something unsettled, or as something which had 
yet to be discovered, or as something which God had left 
to the decision of every individual; did we further be- 
lieve that God had appointed a book to be the shibboleth 
of orthodoxy, the bewildering moral maelstrom into which 
every one was to plunge ere he could procure the pearl of 
faith, then might the Protestant cry out victory, as he 
heard the sentence inhibiting free access to the holy but 
awful thing. But such are not our thoughts, such is not 
our belief. Our adversaries must either refute our prin- 
ciples, which hitherto has not been done, or show that the 
causes of restraint are not valid, and this again is a task 
above their puny strength, ere they affect to triumph over 
us. Let us examine the three reasons adduced by the 
framers of the fourth rule just cited. 

1° Is it not a fact, that experience had shewn that more 
evil than good had resulted from the promiscuous and 
unrestricted reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar 
tongue ? Let us examine facts. At that very time what 
was before the world, as well as before the Fathers of 
Trent ? Why, the most horrible of sights to a Christian. 
Christianity was then being torn to pieces. Lutherans 
and Calvinists, Anabaptists, Carlo stadians, and Zuing- 



The English Reformation. 367 

lians, had already divided and subdivided even the sys- 
tems which had just been established in Germany and 
Switzerland; and in England similar effects were likewise 
manifest. The new religionists, all pleaded the Gospel in 
excuse for their blasphemies, and by the written word 
justified their divisions and separations from unity. Al- 
ready the reader has seen a proof of this in the enactments 
of Henry, which practically forbad the tradesman and 
the poor to use the Bible at all; his attention will now be 
directed to the statement of the great German reformer, 
Luther. t( The devil has got among you : he daily sends 
new visitors to knock at my door. One will not hear of 
baptism; another rejects the Sacrament of the Eucharist ; 
a third teaches that a new world will be created by God 
before the day of judgment ; another that Christ is not 
God: in short, one this and another that. There are 
almost as many creeds as individuals .... No later than 
yesterday one came to me : ( Sir, I am sent by God who 
created heaven and earth ;' and then he began to preach 
like a real idiot, that it was the order of God that I should 
read the books of Moses for him. ( Ah ! where did you 
find this commandment of God V e In the Gospel of St. 
John.' After he had spoken much, I said to him: f Friend, 
come back to-morrow, for I cannot read for you at one 
sitting the books of Moses. . . . Whilst the papacy lasted 
there were no such divisions or dissensions." 1 As early 

1 Ein Briefe D. M. Luther an die, Christen zu Autorf. Wittemburg, 
1525, 4to., and D. M. Luther Briefe, t. iii, p. 60. For an account of the 
Black Boar controversy between Luther and Carlostadt, the reader may- 
see Audin, p. 322, and for that with the cobbler at Orlamunde, see ibid, 
p. 320, and Luther's works, Jense, torn. 1, fol. 467. Both parties of course 
proved their doctrines from Scripture. 



368 The English Reformation. 

as 1527, there were eight different interpretations of the 
words, " This is my body/' and thirty years later, there 
were no fewer than eighty-five, 1 and Bellarmine tells us, 
in a work which was published in 1577, that the number 
of varying expositions had increased to two hundred. 
(Bell, de Euch. c. viii.) The land where there had been 
formerly but one faith, became a Babel of confusion ; and 
men were what the Apostles had foretold, no better than 
" children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine." 
Nor has the face of things improved either in Germany, 
in Switzerland, in England, or indeed elsewhere where 
the new system was set up. Based on the Bible, — such 
is the assertion, — rationalism and heresy have multiplied 
to such an extent, that it would fill a volume even to 
describe briefly all the recent heresies. Some future 
Epiphanius or Augustine, will fill volumes larger in size 
on heresies and the "wanderings of the human intellect," 
than were composed in the fourth and fifth centuries, by 
the fathers just named. 

Nor did morals fare better than faith : " Hodie Lu- 
theranice vivemus" became a term expressive of debauch 
and drunkenness. As Erasmus well observes, the thoughts 
of the early reformers were only intent on the gratification 
of passion; and that his account is not overwrought is 
clear even from Luther's own statement. " I should not," 
he says, "be astonished if God opened at length the gates 
and windows of hell, and snowed or hailed down devils, 
or rained on our heads fire and brimstone, or buried us in 
a fiery abyss, as he did Sodom and Gomorrah. Had 
Sodom and Gomorrah received the gifts which have been 

1 Audin, p. 308. 



Tlie English Reformation. 369 

granted to us — had they seen our visions and heard our 
instructions — they would yet be standing. . . . Since the 
downfall of popery, and the cessation of its excommuni- 
cations and spiritual penalties, the people have learned to 
despise the word of God. They care no longer for the 
Churches ; they have ceased to fear and honor God." 2 
Bucer enters more into details. " The greater part of the 
people," he observes, " seem to have embraced the Gospel, 
only in order to shake off the yoke of discipline, and the 
obligation of fasting, penances, &c, which lay upon them 
in the time of popery, and to live at their pleasure, enjoy- 
ing their lustful and lawless appetite without controul. 
They, therefore, lend a willing ear to the doctrine that we 
are justified by faith alone and not by good works, having 
no relish for them." 3 Already we have stated in the lan- 
guage of Henry and Latimer, what was the moral degra- 
dation of England, consequent on the reformation : from 
these and similar statements the attentive reader will easily 
learn the genius of Protestantism. 

Again, shortly after the reformation, a general insurrec- 
tion of the peasants broke out, which eventuated in a 
renewal of all the excesses in which the Hussites had for- 
merly indulged. It was quelled indeed with vigour, but 
not before much blood had flowed, and carnage had 
stalked over the country. But ten years later, another 
insurrection burst forth. John of Leyden at the head of 
his adherents would establish the empire of God by fire 

3 Luther's Wercke, Altenberg, t. iii, p. 519. 

3 Bucer, de regno Christi. On this scandalous subject, see Trevern's 
Amicable Discussion, vol. i, p. 84 ; Nicholas " Du Protestantisme," p. 543 ; 
and an excellent article teeming with facts in the Dublin Review, March 
1846. 

r-2 



370 Tlie English Reformation. 

and sword. Amid excesses of the most disgusting cha- 
racter, and words of horrid blasphemy, he made his tri- 
umphant entrance into Minister. Of course excess was 
followed by excess; and if the fanaticism of the tailor 
king was crushed, this was not effected without much 
bloodshedding. But who was this Attila of the war 
against the poor? Luther. As Menzel 1 well notes, his 
violence against the emperor and the German princes at 
the close of the Diet of Nuremberg in 1522, was the seed 
of future seditions and wars. Egged on by Luther's 
words, the peasants unfurled the standard of liberty; 
and as they heard him 2 again accusing in language of 
unmeasured violence princes and lords, bishops, priests, 
and monks, of oppression and plunder, and saw him point 
to the peasants swords, as God's instruments to chastise 
those enemies of the peasant and of society at large, their 
enthusiasm knew no bounds. They fearlessly made their 
demands, the justice of which they established by refer- 
ence to holy Writ ; hoping and believing that he who 
had encouraged them to rise would not abandon them in 
the hour of need. But great was their disappointment. 
The Apostle of the Reformation 3 became the greatest enemy 
of the peasants ; against them he wrote ; their emancipa- 
tion he opposed, and their slavery he defended. Th e 
Heresiarch heard of the butchery of 100,000 men, of the 

destruction of numerous cities and monasteries, and 
chur ches, but he had no tear to shed. " It is I who hav e 

done it by order of God," he brutally exclaimed, "and 
whoever has perished in this combat, has lost both body 



1 See Audin, p. 285 and seq. 2 Ibid, p. 309, 310. 

s Tom. iii, fol. 139. Ed. Jenae ; and Audin. 318. 



The English Reformation. 371 

and soul, and is eternally damned!" "Poor peasants/' 
says Osiander, " whom Luther flattered and caressed while 
they were content with attacking the Bishops and the 
Clergy ! But when the revolt assumed another aspect, and 
the insurgents mocked at his bull, and threatened him and 
his princes, — then appeared another bull, in which he 
preached up the slaughter of the peasants as if they were 
so many sheep. And when they were killed, how, think 
you, did he celebrate their funeral? By marrying a 
nun!" 4 Yes, as Erasmus feelingly remarks, whilst Luther 
was revelling at his nuptials, " a hundred thousand peasants 
were descending into the tomb." Morituri te salutant 
was the cry which followed Luther to the bridal chamber. 
The oppressors of the slave had often before listened to 
the salutation ! 

Such were the results of the indiscriminate use of the 
Bible : discord in religion, discord in civil government, 
and an overthrow of morality. What beneficial fruits did 
the perusal of the Bible produce to outbalance this mighty 
mass of miseries ? It produced none deserving of serious 
notice. 

2° The second proposition will be readily admitted by 
every Protestant. For though disorders may arise from 
the indiscriminate perusal of the Bible in the vernacular, it 
does not follow that the Bible itself is to be blamed. He 
only will be deserving of censure who applies it to a pur- 
pose for which it was never intended by the Almighty ; 
and who, devoid of proper information, and of knowledge 

4 See Spalding for this and numerous other passages drawn from German 
writers, relative to their opinions as to the originator of this horrid catas- 
trophe, p. 272 and seq., of his excellent review of D'Auhigny. I refer to 
the Irish edition. 



372 The English 'Reformation. 

sufficient to justify the assumed character of prophet to 
and interpreter of the Bible, sets himself up as the judge 
of orthodoxy, and as a commentator abundantly qualified 
to decide on the meaning of the inspired text. 

3° Nor can more doubt exist, relative to the third pro- 
position, to wit, that those only should be permitted to 
read the word who might be expected to derive rather 
benefit than injury from it. This proposition is self-evi- 
dent; and acting on this principle, every parent would 
rightly extend, limit, or wholly interdict the use of the 
most innocent and abstractedly useful things, to his chil- 
dren. If experience prove, that certain studies, though 
good in themselves, are to some individuals sources of 
ruin; that companions however desirable in themselves 
are in point of fact injurious ; that certain foods, though 
good, are to this individual a stimulus to excess, or at this 
season dangerous ; that allowances suited to another's 
taste are made the prolific parent of crime and extrava- 
gance, assuredly it becomes a duty to remove these causes 
of misery, so long as they may be prudently adjudged to 
be detrimental. The disorganised system must be treated 
very differently from the well ordered ; and of this no one 
either does or affects to doubt in matters regarding only 
life and this present state of existence. Why should not 
the principle be extended ? Why should it not be made 
to embrace the future as well as the present, and eternal 
as well as temporal interests ? 

In fact, learned and zealous Protestants have written more 
absolutely in reference to the necessity of some kind of 
restriction, than even the compilers of the fourth rule. 
Take as one instance out of many which might readily be 
adduced, the following words of the illustrious Bishop 



The English Reformation. 373 

Jebb. After assigning that meaning to the words spevvZrs 
tolq ypuQdig, which we have already vindicated, he con- 
tinues : " The meaning thus established will, I hope, not 
be found deficient in practical results of the most important 
and most edifying character. From the case of the Jews, 
we may learn how possible it is, not only to read the 
Scriptures but to read them with attention, with diligence, 
and even with some degree of lively interest, and at the 
same time to reap no other fruit from this study than 
heightened responsibility and aggravated condemnation. 
And at the present day this lesson would seem to be par- 
ticularly seasonable. For on the one hand, from a zeal 
very sincere, but not very considerate, the Scriptures are 
circulated in such a manner as, unintentionally, I am 
sure, but still effectually, to countenance the notion, that 
the mere perusal, I had almost said the bare possession of 
the sacred volume, may be available for the attainment of 
eternal life ; whilst on the other hand we find melancholy 
proof, that the Bibles indiscriminately scattered through 
the land, may be rendered instrumental to the most wicked 
and infernal purposes. The volume of Scriptures is now 
in every hand. And men without faith, without hope, 
without charity, without God in the world, are labouring 
to convert that volume into the text-book of anarchy and 
atheism. The book, the chapter, and the verse, are un- 
blushingly referred to, whence a disastrous and diabolical 
chemistry extracts the poison of blasphemy and unbelief. 
The shops, the markets, the stalls, the very courts of jus- 
tice, are saturated with those materials of destruction 
temporal and eternal. And at such a time, and amidst 
such a deluge of unnatural impiety, the people ought to 
be set upon their guard. They ought to be instructed 



374 The English Reformation 

how possible it is to read the Scriptures, not only without 
edification, but with moral and spiritual detriment. They 
ought to be made sensible that the word of God, if it 
prove not a saviour of life unto life, may become a saviour 
of death unto death. They ought to be warned in the 
same spirit, and almost in the same words, with which our 
Blessed Saviour warned the Jews of old : take heed hoic ye 
hear was his solemn admonition ; and from every pulpit of 
this nation, and by every minister of God's holy word, I 
could wish to hear pronounced the seasonable, salutary 
warning, — beware hoiv ye read ! nl And in a note attached 
to a sermon preached in 1803, for an association which, 
among other things, proposed to supply every house in the 
kingdom with a Bible where there was not one, he makes 
the following observation : " This declaration requires to 
be qualified. As a final attainment the object should 
never be relinquished. But, in the first instance, the pro- 
bability, at least, should be ascertained, that, wherever the 
Scriptures are given, they ivill be reverently received, and 
piously employed, Otherwise, we may be found acting in 
opposition to that injunction of our Blessed Lord, St. 
Matthew vii, 6." 2 

Such precisely were the views of the heads of the Con- 
gregation of the Index — views adopted, too, by the Eoman 
Pontiff. The precious thing was not to be given to dogs, 
nor was the costly pearl to be tossed before sicine. Holy 
things were to be treated holily ; and where it Tras known 
that they would be desecrated, it was deemed better, and 
more conformable to the principles of the guardians of the 
sacred deposit, and more useful even for the perverse, to 

i JeWs Practical Theology, vol. i, p. 303 and seq. 2 Vol. ii, p. 29 



The English Reformation. 375 

withhold rather than to grant what, under other circum- 
stances, would joyfully have been conceded. Had not 
experience proved the perverseness of certain persons, 
had it not been evident that practically the book of God 
had been made the book of Satanic teaching, had it not 
been feared lest this wickedness might be perpetuated, 
and still further insults be offered to God, even on account 
of the inspired Scriptures, then no prohibition would 
have been issued. The prohibition was against the wicked 
and the perverse, — for the good and the pious there was 
practically no prohibition : these were exhorted by their 
pastors to read the sacred word, for to them it would 
prove a source of consolation and of encouragement ; and 
reading in faith, they would recognize everywhere facts 
and words confirmatory of the teaching of the Church. 
The rule pointed out, in a word, those who would be 
benefited and those who would be injured by the perusal 
of the holy volume. To the former the Scriptures were 
to be conceded ; but to the latter they were wisely denied. 
In point of fact, as is evident both from the words of 
Bishop Jebb and of the fourth rule, it was not the peru- 
sal but the interpretation which was heeded. The conse- 
quences drawn from the letter — the setting up of self 
against the Church — the appointing individual reason as 
the principle of faith instead of a properly constituted 
authority, arrested the attention of the heads of the 
Church, and forced them to interfere; for these conse- 
quences and these principles were known to be anti- 
Christian. Thus viewed the whole affair assumes again a 
different aspect; for it has been already shown, and this 
is practically universally admitted, that all men are not 



S76 The English Reformation. 

capable of drawing up a rule of faith, a system of religion 
from the Scripture ; and consequently that those who 
affected to do this — and this was the point guarded 
against — were unfit, in any sense, to read with profit the 
Bible. And how pointedly the rule was directed against 
the ignorant, against those who in fact could neither judge 
of the integrity of the text, nor of the meaning of the text, is 
obvious from this : only vernacular translations were pro- 
hibited. Bibles in the original tongue, or in Latin, were 
not at all proscribed. In other words, those who could 
really study the text, those who were scholars, and were 
best able as individuals to judge of its meaning, were not 
in any ways impeded from studying, reading, when and 
as much as they chose, the sacred word : and in the face 
of this fact shall some be still ignorant enough to repeat 
the foolish strain : Therefore does the Church of Rome 
inhibit the perusal of the Bible, because she knows that 
she is opposed to the Bible. She allows it freely to the 
wise anal learned, without fearing any such detection or dis- 
crepancy ; and are the unwise they who are to make the 
important discovery ? Those possessed of a thorough 
knowledge of the language of the Jew, and Greek, and 
Roman ; those whose time is their own ; those who have 
all the appliances resultant from ease and wealth to prose- 
cute their studies successfully ; those who have the power 
of publishing to the world the results of their individual 
discoveries, are unrestrained as far as any law of the 
Church goes ; and nothing is done to withdraw the Bible 
from their hands. These are not dreaded ; and does the 
Church dread the discoveries of the drunken and the 
debauched, and of those whose intellectuality and appli- 



The English Reformation. 377 

ances are on a par with their knowledge ? Surely, the 
malicious insinuation, or rather assertion, is as the poet 

says — 



An argument 



Of human weakness, rather than of strength." 

Would the Protestant know why the framers of the Index 
drew up the rule they did ? It was to save the less 
favoured children of the Church from seduction ; it was 
to guard them against the wickedness of heresy and the 
foolish inferences of ignorance ; it was to secure them 
against ruin in the hour of darkness and of tempest and of 
deluge ; it was to snatch them from pastures which had 
been laid bare, and from wells which had been poisoned, 
and to give them saving and strengthening food, uncor- 
rupted and uncontaminated. The Church was a mother : 
and as a mother she was obliged specially to guard, and 
specially to attend to the interests of her weaker children. 
These thoughts guided the legislators who framed, and 
the prelates who commanded the observance of, the rules 
of the Index. The Church was bound to make her 
teachings known, bound to teach all truth to the end of 
time ; but she was not bound to command all persons to 
read — much less was she bound to tell each person to 
read and judge for himself. Nay more, hers was the duty 
to inhibit this private system of religion, since her authority 
was paramount and absolute. And when it is remembered 
with what rigour the Jews restrained their youth from 
reading at all certain portions of the Scriptures, as the 
Canticle of Canticles, the Book of Genesis, &c, though 
there were few dangers then to faith and morals compared 
with those which inundated the land, as we have already 



378 The English Reformation. 

seen, in the sixteenth century ; when further it is known 
how, as Lord Clarendon observes, regicides justified their 
crimes formerly by appeals to the sacred texts, that poly- 
gamy and neglect of families, and other still worse crimes, 
not to speak of a thousand heresies, have in our own days 
been vindicated as lawful on the warrantee of Holy Writ, 
will not every one admit, that such a precaution as was 
taken formerly might now well be adopted everywhere 
and by everybody, howsoever opposed they may be to 
Rome and her religion ? Where there is heresy, the letter 
of the law is lifeless — there is no vivifying principle in it : 
it is the outward covering of the body of death, and not the 
instrument of the Spirit. 

The rules, however formed, were obviously of a disci- 
plinary character. They were similar to those which had 
been formerly made with the object of stopping the deso- 
lation caused by the Albigenses, but which had, after 
the momentary emergency, either fallen into desuetude or 
been formally rescinded. The errors and corruptions and 
principles of the sixteenth century caused the renewal of 
the restriction. But the real nature of heresy did not long 
remain a secret. From its fruits, its disuniting, unspiritual 
and worldly character was soon manifest; and after the 
first revolutionary outburst, little need was there of alarm. 
Within fifty years Protestantism attained its greatest 
height in Germany and elsewhere, 1 and after that it 
became year by year more divided and more impotent. 
Kingdoms seemingly powerless to escape the pressure of 
heresy, as France, Belgium, Bavaria, Bohemia, Poland, 
Hungary, and Austria, passed through the ordeal success- 
fully — Protestantism was vanquished and humbled, and 

1 See Macauley, Eankes' Popes, p. 16. 



The English Reformation. 379 

the tide of heterodoxy was rolled back with resistless fury 
on the oppressors of the Church. Catholicity everywhere 
gained important victories, whilst Protestantism has been 
unable to reconquer what was lost by her more than two 
hundred years ago. Countries may have since become 
infidel, but none have become Protestant. Protestantism 
is too well known to gain over — notwithstanding the re- 
course had to bribery and political influences — any king- 
dom. Hence the original rules have been considerably 
modified; and as the learned Father Perrone observes, 
there is hardly a people now which has not the Bible in 
the vernacular, and which does not make use of it with 
either the tacit or express permission of the Boman Pon- 
tiffs and Bishops ; all that these require being a faithful 
version and suitable notes. 2 The modification referred to 
dates from the thirteenth of June, 1757. In that year 
Benedict XIV approved of the following decree of the 
Congregation of the Index : " If versions of the Bibles of 
this class in the vulgar tongue shall have been approved 
of by the Apostolic See, or published with notes drawn 
from the holy fathers of the Church, or from learned and 
Catholic men, they are permitted." 3 Hence it happened 
that Pius VI so warmly approved of the translation of 
Martini : his words are the following : " At a time when a 
vast number of bad books, which most grossly attack the 
Catholic religion, are circulated even among the un- 
learned, &c, you judge exceedingly well that the faithful 
should be excited to the reading of the Holy Scriptures ; 
for they are most plentiful fountains which ought to be 
open to every one, whence to draw sanctity of morals and 



Prselectiones Theolog. t. ix, p. 227. 

On this matter see Scotti's " Problemi di Politico,, &c, vol. ii, 269, 275. 



380 The English Reformation. 

doctrine, to eradicate the errors which are widely dissemi- 
nated in these corrupt times. This yon have seasonably 
accomplished, as you declare, by pubHshing the sacred 
writings in the language of your country, suitable to 
every one's capacity ; especially when you show and set 
forth that you have added explanatory notes, which, being 
extracted from the Holy Fathers, preclude every possible 
danger of abuse. Thus you have not swerved either from 
the laws of the Congregation of the Index, or from the 
Constitution published on this subject by Benedict XIV." 
Hence if the Bible be Catholic, and contain explanatory 
notes, everything has been done which the Church pre- 
scribes ; and every person is, as far as the Church is con- 
cerned, at liberty to read modern and vernacular trans- 
lations. 

But even prior to this modification the fourth rule of 
the Index was never enforced either in this or in many 
other countries. The rule had not been promulgated by 
numerous prelates. To them it appeared better, all cir- 
cumstances considered, not to issue the forbiddance ; and 
hence it has happened that the perusal of Catholic transla- 
tions has always been in this, as well as in various other 
parts of Europe, absolutely unrestricted. According to 
the Protestant theory, then, England should be the land 
of pure Protestantism, as well as of Bible reading ; and 
here, at least, there should be no converts, no Catholics. 
But what is the fact ? Do facts and theory agree ? No. 
Hundreds of learned ministers have joined the faith, as 
well as thousands of lay persons, in high and low life : — 
they have left Protestantism, because it is a religion with- 
out a creed, and a merely human system, which is devoid 
of all marks of divinity, and opposed in numberless ways 



The English Reformation, 381 

even to the written word of God. Day by day Catho- 
licism increases, and Protestantism decreases. It cannot 
be said in return, that some Catholics have abandoned 
their Church for Protestantism because they had dis- 
covered in the Bible the errors of Popery. This cry has 
been raised, indeed ; it has gone forth over England ; 
Bible agents and Bible distributors and tract circulators 
have given importance to the assertion, but it is well 
known to be false. These apostates had either lost their 
virtue before they had lost their religion, or at all events, 
they had only adopted their new opinions in consequence 
of some circumstances extrinsic to the Bible. This, I say, 
is a fact co-extensive with the work of seduction. And 
what opinions did such men embrace ; were they such as 
Anglicanism can approve of? Were they indeed the 
teachings of the Bible ? 

But, it will be said, is it not well known that " Rome is 
opposed to the Bible ? Have not the leading Pontiffs of 
this century, Pius VII, Leo XII, Gregory XVI, as well 
as Pius IX, denounced in the strongest terms that Society 
which is wholly devoted to the circulation of the written 
word— the Bible Society ? and does not this denunciation 
involve a hatred of the Bible ? Do people denounce that 
which they love, and is war made against that power 
which is looked upon as friendly and serviceable in the 
struggle for religion ? " The reply is easy ; it is deducible, 
indeed, from what has been said. 1° The Protestant 
Bible, in the opinion of the Roman Pontiffs, and indeed 
of the Catholic Church, is not a true copy of the Bible : 

1 See the briefs of Pius VII, dated June 29th, and September 3rd, 1816 ; 
of Leo XII, May 3rd, 1824 ; of Gregory XVI, in l'Ami de la Eeligion, 
October 24, 1840. 



38£ The English Reformation. 

for many a text is there corrupted, and many a sacred 
book is either altogether omitted 1 or is denominated apo- 
cryphal. This being the case, who can consistently affect 
to feel surprise at the denunciations of the head pastors 
of the Church ? Should an occasional chapter, or indeed 
a verse here and there, be deliberately and of set purpose 
dropped from some future editions of the Bible by either 
Socinian, Dissenter, or Catholic, what would the Anglican, 
who received that chapter and those verses, say ? — 
Assuredly, the words of Revelations, " If any man shall 
take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, 
God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and 
out of the holy city," would be printed in staring capitals 
against the corrupter of the text. Have not we heard of 
stormy controversies occasioned by the alteration, real or 
supposed, of a single letter of the Holy Scriptures ? 2 And 
is the Travis and Porson controversy relative to John i, 
v. 7, even now forgotten, or so much as settled ? Now 
the Pontiff is the guardian, as head of the Church, of the 
Scriptures ; in their preservation he is and must be deeply 
interested ; not to be watchful would be in him a crime. 
This he knows ; and hence, recently as well as formerly, 
he has raised his voice to warn the faithful against the cor- 
rupters, the suppressors, and the denouncers of those 
Scriptures, which are one, and one only ; and of that one- 
ness, the Catholic Bible is the only fair representation. It 

1 The Bibles of the Society are not the authorized version. This cir- 
cumstance is not sufficiently attended to by orihodoo: Protestants, who rest 
their faith on the Bible of James I. 

2 The reader knows what a controversy raged about the reading of one 
manuscript, whether the letter was 9 or 0. Even microscopes were 
necessary to draw God out of the word. 



The English Reformation. 383 

is, then, to misrepresent, to conceal the real state of the 
question, to hold up Rome as opposed to the Bible, be- 
cause opposed to a book so called, circulated by the Bible 
Society. That book is not the Bible ; at the best, it is a 
corrupt and imperfect copy : — and to call it the Bible is, in 
the belief of the Catholic, a denial of a sacred article of 
faith, solemnly framed in the fourth session of the Council 
of Trent, and approved of by Christendom. 

2° The Pontiffs are opposed to the Bible Society, on 
account of the principle advocated by the fautors of this 
system. The principle is this : a book is to be the rule of 
faith ; the means through which mankind is to be made 
acquainted with the dogmas and the practices of religion. 
This principle has been already shown to be false, and 
directly opposed, indeed, to that advocated by Jesus 
Christ, and maintained by Apostles and Apostolic men. It 
is a principle, in fact, utterly inapplicable for 1450 years — 
and dependant, as we have demonstrated, for its possibility 
on the invention of the art of printing. Christ appointed a 
body of ministers, and not a book, to teach all truth to the 
end of time. 

3° They are opposed to it, on account of its constitution, 
which betrays an utter ignorance of the first constituent 
of Christ's religion, namely unity. For who form this 
Society ? — who are the men who support it, meet together 
in its favour, laud its workings in speeches, in writings, 
and in conversations, and sedulously labour to carry out its 
objects ? They are men of a multiplicity of creeds ! 
Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, Socinians, and such like 
heretics ! ! From this " discors concordia" this amalga- 
mation of heterogeneous elements, and this open avowal 
that the Bible is in the hands of Anglicans Anglican, of 



384 The English Reformation. 

Baptists Baptist, of Methodists Methodist, is it not clear 
that those who believe that such a combination is wickedly 
latitudinarian, and only calculated to tear faith into innu- 
merable pieces, and make Jews and Gentiles laugh at the 
divinity of Christianity, which is thus practically main- 
tained to be either in opposition with itself, or so strangely 
obscure in its only rule, as to render the supposition of 
unity utterly absurd and ridiculous, are bound to denounce 
the propagandists of latitudinarianism and the supporters 
of this hydra-heresy. What must be the feelings of the 
religious mind, as it witnesses the shipping off of tens of 
thousands of volumes, year after year, for the spread not 
of the Gospel of Christ, for that is one, but of the doctrines 
of every kind of fanatic, who may ascribe to the Almighty 
his own folly or blasphemies. Surely a feeling of horror 
must come over it ; and every one who has the right to 
interfere will do so, in order to stem the stream of vice and 
error. The Pontiff, then, does well in raising his voice 
and warning the nations against the delusion. Instead of 
censure, the Holy Father is deserving of the thanks of 
mankind. Again, what must thoughtful Jews and Gen- 
tiles conclude from the fact of so many varying religionists 
circulating the same word as the word of God, and yet 
professing creeds so diametrically opposed? Why, with 
reason might they say, " Is your God, then, a God of con- 
tradictions ? If he be, we want him not ,* but if he be one 
and truthful, then why do not you, who come hither to 
enlighten us, agree among yourselves about Him and his 
doctrines ? You tell us that the Bible is the rule of faith, 
and that it is easily understood ; prove your words to be 
true : agree about the meaning of your easy book ; let us 
see Christians one, and then we may begin to read and 



The English Reformation. 385 

study your authorities. Till that is done, we will cling to 
the Synagogue, and we will continue to worship at the 
altars of our fathers, and laugh at those who affect to pity 
us." Is not the end of the writing of the Bible to make men 
one ; and does not the Bible Society make men many ? 
As long as Methodists, and Baptists, and Independents, 
and Anglicans equally diffuse the book, is not the world 
deluged by a multiplicity of faiths ? The defenders of one 
creed are allied to the advocates of a contradictory system, 
by an unhallowed compromise; and though the same 
word may be used, and the same Bible circulated, the 
discordance of sentiment and of object is palpably 
admitted. 

4° The device adopted, and the mal-appropriation of the 
words Bible, Holy Scripture, Word of God, would of 
themselves justify all the opposition which has been raised 
by Rome against this kind of Society. It was seen by the 
framers of the Bible Association that, as the Society was 
to be composed of individuals of every persuasion, it 
would be very important not to allow any observations to 
be made regarding the meaning of the Bible. Hence no 
note, no comment, no interpretation of any kind — no, not 
even such as appeared in the authorized version, was per- 
mitted. The divine law was nominally to be left entirely 
unexplained ; and the necessity of a ministry was to be 
merged in the circulation of a Bible. At the meetings of 
the Society all speak of the Bible, all agree that it is a 
divine book, and all praise its merits to the skies ; if on 
earth there be peace and harmony, surely they are to be 
found in these meetings. " Tros Tyriusve " — it matters 
not what may be the religion of one's neighbour : he is a 
friend of the Bible ; that is enough. But, in point of fact, 

s 



386 The English Reformation. 

is there any real union? Is not this peace the veriest 
delusion ; and are not the words used, the speeches 
spouted, reported, published, and widely circulated, in- 
tended to deceive the unthinking masses. There is no 
union of sentiment whatever ; and the various pastors, 
whilst speaking of the Bible, mean something verv dissen- 
tient and discordant. They mean not a stringing together 
of mere words and letters, but they mean words with a 
specific meaning : for sounds, words only, are not God's 
sayings, God's declarations ; they mean those interpreta- 
tions which respectively they attach to the letter. And is 
there here unity ? Is there unity of meaning, of interpre- 
tation, of belief ? No : their speeches, then, were and are 
a hoax on the public ; and their boasts are an insult to the 
understanding of their audiences. Fancy to yourselves a 
platform on which Anglicans and Socinians, Methodists 
and Independents, Baptists and Hallites, and Quakers 
appear in mighty array. All make the Bible the theme of 
their praises, all proclaim it to be God's word, all describe 
the advantages resultant from its circulation, all speak of 
it as the very truth, all hold it up as the work which all 
men should help to circulate everywhere, because it is the 
only principle of true religion, the only infallible authority 
to which man can appeal. Notwithstanding appearances, 
can such a meeting have any other effect than to sicken 
the true believer ? Dissentients in faith, of all classes, 
met together to use language which either has no meaning 
or is a knoicn falsehood ! See these men sallying forth 
from the meeting. One goes to the pulpit of the Church 
of England, another to a Baptist Chapel, a third to a 
Methodist Meeting, a fourth to an Independent Congre- 
gation. Each opens his Bible, and from it proves his 



The English Reformation. 387 

system of belief! The Anglican maintains the divine 
origin of the hierarchy ; the Baptist laughs it to scorn ; 
the Independent approves the doctrine of the Trinity, and 
the Socinian looks upon it, not as a mystery of faith, but 
as an unfathomable depth of folly ; the Methodist sings 
the praises of Wesley, and the Hallite prefers to speak 
with unheard of familiarity of and to the Deity, on the 
authority of a sea captain, who looks upon honours as anti- 
Scriptural, and upon all previous forms of religion as so 
many deflections from truth. What a change has come 
over the orators of peace and the panegyrists of Biblical 
truth ! The change reminds us of the poet's description 
of the Sybil: 

Subito non vultus, non color unus 



Non comptce mansire comce; sed pectus anhelum 
JEt rabie /era corda tument; majorque videri 
Nee mortale sonans, adflata est numine quando 
Jam propiore Dei. 

Who shall wonder if the Pontiff directs attention to the 
delusion and the deceit practised ? The Jews clung at 
last to the letter ; and they rejected Jesus Christ. The 
Bible Society men affect to cling to the letter ; but the 
Church knows that the pretence ends in the rejection of 
everything sacred in Christianity. Shall such results be 
witnessed, without one voice at least being raised in vindi- 
cation of God's one truth ? 

5° The Pontiffs know, moreover, what are the practices 
of the Bible Society. Wherever the Society obtains a 
footing, the most strenuous endeavours are made to upset 
Catholicity where it is established, or entirely to prevent 
its introduction. Violence, falsehoods, misrepresentations, 
anti-Catholic tracts — yes, even in some instances anti- 



388 The English Reformation. 

Christian works have been circulated, in order to carry 
out this unholy design. 1 Such are the facts which have 
reached the Vatican ; and in the face of these facts, shall 
surprise be still felt at the proceedings of the Pontiffs, and 
shall the briefs which they occasionally have published, in 
condemnation of this unholy and anti-Christian Society, be 
called instruments condemnatory of the Bible ? Surely 
not. Out of the Church, I repeat it, and this declaration 
should never be forgotten, there is no Bible — no fair 
representation of what God has really said. It is in vain 
for Protestants to call theirs the Bible. Such is not the 
belief of the Church of the living God. The language of 
Protestantism is and must be wholly repudiated by the 
followers of Him of Galilee. 

1 See on this interesting and important subject the Annals for the last 
thirteen years of the Propagation of the Faith. These letters are a repertory 
of information against the Bible Society. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



THE SIX ARTICLES OF HENRY THE EIGHTH. 

I. In the Sacrament of the Altar, after the Consecra- 
tion, there remains no substance of bread and wine ; but 
under these forms the natural body and blood of Christ 
are present. 

II. Communion of both kinds is not necessary to salva- 
tion, to all persons, by the law of God ; but both the body 
and flesh of Christ are together in each of the kinds. 

III. Priests may not marry by the law of God. 

IV. Vows of chastity ought to be observed by the laws 
of God. 

V. Private masses ought to be continued ; which, as 
they are agreeable to God's law, so men receive great 
benefit from them. 

VI. Auricular confession is expedient and necessary, 
and ought to be retained in the Church. 



THE FORTY-TWO ARTICLES OF EDWARD THE SIXTH. 

I. Of faith in the Holy Trinity. — There is but 
one living and true God everlasting, without body, parts, 
or passions ; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness ; the 
maker and preserver of all things, both visible and 



392 APPENDIX. 

invisible. And in the unity of this Godhead there are 
three persons, one substance, power, and eternity, the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

II. The Word of God made very Man. — The Son, 
which is the word of the Father, took man's nature in the 
womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her substance : so that the 
two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead 
and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never 
to be divided ; whereof is one Christ, very God and very 
Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, 
to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice not only 
for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men. 

III. Of the going down of Christ into hell. — 
As Christ died for us and was buried, so also it is to be 
believed that he went down into hell : for his body lay 
in the grave till his resurrection ; but his soul, being sepa- 
rate from his body, remained with the spirits which were 
detained in prison, that is to say, in hell, and there 
preached unto them, as witnesseth that place of Peter. 

IV. Of the Kesurrection of Christ. — Christ did 
truly rise again from death, and took again his body, with 
flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection 
of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and 
there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last 
day. 

V. The Doctrine of Holy Scripture is sufficient 
to Salvation. — Holy Scripture containeth all things 
necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read 
therein, nor may be proved thereby, although sometimes 
it may be admitted, by God's faithful people, as pious and 
conducing unto order and decency, yet is not required 
of any man, that it should be delivered as an article 



APPENDIX. 393 

of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to 
salvation. 

VI. The Old Testament is not to be rejected. — 
The Old Testament is not to be rejected, as if it were con- 
trary to the New, but to be retained. Forasmuch as in 
the Old Testament, as in the New, everlasting life is 
offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator 
betwixt God and man, being both God and man. Where- 
fore they are not to be heard, who feign that the old fathers 
did look only for transitory promises. 

VII. The Three Creeds. — The three Creeds, Nice 
Creed, Athanasius' Creed, and that which is commonly 
called the Apostles' Creed, ought thoroughly to be re- 
ceived ; for they may be proved by most certain warrants 
of the Holy Scripture. 

VIII. Of original Sin. — Original sin standeth not in 
the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk, 
and at this day is affirmed by the Anabaptists), but it 
is the fault and corruption of every man, that naturally is 
engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very 
far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own 
nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always con- 
trary to the spirit ; and therefore, in every person born in 
the world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation : and 
this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are 
regenerated, whereby the lust of the flesh, called in Greek 
(ppovv\(j,a acipnog, which some do expound the wisdom, some 
sensuality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh, 
is not subject to the law of God. And though there is no 
condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet 
the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath 
of itself the nature of sin. 

s2 



891 APPENDIX. 

IX. Of free will. — We have no power to do good 
works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace 
of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have 
good will, and working with us, when we have that 
good will. 

X. Of grace. — The grace of Christ, or the Holy 
Ghost, which is given by him, doth take froni man the 
heart of stone, and giveth him a heart of flesh. And 
though it rendereth us willing to do those good works 
which before we were unwilhng to do, and unwilling to 
do those evil works which before we did, yet is no vio- 
lence offered by it to the will of man ; so that no man 
when he hath sinned, can excuse himself, as if he sinned 
against his will, or upon constraint ; and therefore that 
he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that 
account. 

XI. Of the Justification of Max. — Justification by 
faith only in Jesus Christ, in that sense wherein it is set 
forth in the homily of justification, is the most certain and 
most wholesome doctrine for a Christian man. 

XII. \Vorks before Jr/STLFiCATiox. — Works done 
before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his spirit, 
are not pleasant to God : forasmuch as they spring not of 
faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to 
receive grace, or, as the school authors say, deserve grace 
of congruity : yea rather, for that they are not done as 
God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we 
doubt not but they have the nature of sin. 

XIII. Works of Sf/pererogatiox. — Voluntary works, 
besides, over, and above God's commandments, and which 
they call works of supererogation, cannot be taught with- 
out arrogancy and impiety ; for by them men do declare 



APPENDIX. 395 

that they do not only render unto God as much as they 
are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake than 
of bounden duty is required : whereas Christ saith plainly, 
When ye have done all that are commanded you, say, We 
are unprofitable servants. 

XIV. None but Christ without Sin. — Christ, in 
the truth of our nature, was made like unto us in all 
things (sin only excepted), from which he was clearly void 
both in his flesh and in his spirit. He came to be a lamb 
without spot, who, by sacrifice of himself once made, 
should take away the sins of the world ; and sin, as St. 
John saith, was not in him. But all we, the rest (though 
baptized and born again in Christ) yet offend in many 
things ; and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, 
and the truth is not in us. 

XV. Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost. — Not 
every deadly sin, willingly committed after baptism, is sin 
against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore 
the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall 
into sin after baptism. After we have received the Holy 
Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin ; 
and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend 
our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned which 
say, they can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny 
the place of penance to such as truly repent. 

XVI. The Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. — 
The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is then committed, 
when any man, out of malice and hardness of heart, doth 
fully reproach and persecute in a hostile manner the truth 
of God's word, manifestly made known unto him, which 
sort of men, being made obnoxious to the curse, subject 
themselves to the most grievous of all wickedness ; from 



396 APPENDIX. 

whence this kind of sin is called unpardonable, and so 
affirmed to be by our Lord and Saviour. 

XVII. Of Predestination and Election. — Predes- 
tination to life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, 
before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath con- 
stantly decreed by his counsel, secret unto us, to deliver 
from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen out 
of mankind, to bring them by Christ to everlasting salva- 
tion, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore they which 
be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called, 
according to God's purpose, by his spirit working in due 
season ; they through grace obey the calling, they be justi- 
fied freely, they are made " sons of adoption," they are 
made like the image of the only begotten Jesus Christ, 
they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by 
God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity. As the 
godly consideration of predestination and election in Christ 
is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to 
godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working 
of the spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, 
and their earthly members, and drawing up their minds to 
high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly 
establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation, to be 
enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle 
their love towards God : so for curious and carnal persons, 
lacking the spirit of Christ, to have continually before 
their eyes the sentence of God's predestination, is a most 
dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth thrust them 
either into desperation, or into the wretchlessness of 
most unclean living, no less perilous than desperation. 
Furthermore, though the decree of predestination be un- 
known to us, yet must we receive God's promises in such 



APPENDIX. 397 

wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy Scrip- 
ture ; and in our doings that will of God is to be followed, 
which we have expressly declared unto us in the word of 
God. 

XVIII. Everlasting Salvation to be obtained 
only in the Name of Christ. — They are also to be 
accursed that presume to say, that every man shall be 
saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be 
diligent to frame his life according to that law, and the 
light of nature : for Holy Scripture doth set out unto 
us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be 
saved. 

XIX. All Men are bound to keep the Precepts 
of the Moral Law. — Although the law given from God 
by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, do not bind 
Christian men, or the civil precepts thereof ought of 
necessity to be received in any commonwealth ; yet, not- 
withstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is exempted 
from the obedience of the commandments which are called 
moral. Wherefore they are not to be heard which 
teach, that the Holy Scriptures were given to none but to 
the weak, and brag continually of the spirit, by which 
they do pretend that all whatsoever they preach is sug- 
gested to them, though manifestly contrary to the Holy 
Scripture. 

XX. Of the Church. — The visible Church of Christ 
is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word 
of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly adminis- 
tered, according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things 
that of necessity are requisite to the same. As the Church 
of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred, so also 
the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their 



398 APPENDIX. 

living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of 
faith. 

XXI. Of the Authority op the Church. — It is not 
lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is contrary 
to God's word written, neither may it so expound one 
place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another ; where- 
fore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of 
holy writ ; yet, as it ought not to decree anything against 
the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any- 
thing to be believed for necessity of salvation. 

XXII. Op the Authority of General Councils. 
— General councils may not be gathered together without 
the commandment and will of princes, and when they be 
gathered together, forasmuch as they be an assembly of 
men, whereof all be not governed with the spirit and word 
of God, they may err, and sometimes have erred, even in 
things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things ordained 
by them as necessary to salvation, have neither strength 
nor authority, unless it be declared that they are taken out 
of Holy Scripture. 

XXIII. Of Purgatory. — The doctrine of the school- 
men, concerning purgatory, pardons, worshipping, and 
adoration, as well of images as of relics, and also invoca- 
tion of saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and 
grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather per- 
niciously repugnant to the word of God. 

XXIV. No Man to minister in the Church ex- 
cept he be called. — It is not lawful for any man to 
take upon him the office of public preaching or ministering 
the Sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully 
called and sent to execute the same ; and those we ought 
to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and 



APPENDIX. 399 

called to this work by men who have public authority- 
given unto them in the congregation, to call and send 
ministers into the Lord's vineyard. 

XXV. All things to be done in the Congrega- 
tion in such a Tongue as it is understood by the 
People. — It is most fit and most agreeable to the word 
of God, that nothing be read or rehearsed in the congre- 
gation in a tongue not known unto the people, which Paul 
hath forbidden to be done, unless some be present to 
interpret. 

XXVI. Of the Sacraments. — Our Lord Jesus Christ 
gathered his people into a society by Sacraments, very 
few in number, and most easy to be kept, and of most 
excellent signification; that is to say, Baptism and the 
Supper of the Lord. The Sacraments are not ordained 
of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried about ; but 
that we should duly use them, and in such only as worthily 
receive the same, they have a wholesome effect or opera- 
tion ; not, as some say, ex opere operato, which terms, as 
they are strange and utterly unknown to the Holy Scrip- 
tures, so do they yield a sense which savoureth of little 
piety, but of much superstition ; but they that receive 
them unworthily receive to themselves damnation. The 
Sacraments ordained by the word of God, be not only 
badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather 
they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace 
and God's good will towards us, by the which he doth 
work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also 
strengthen and confirm our faith in him. 

XXVII. The wickedness of the Ministers takes 

NOT AWAY THE EFFICACY OF DlVINE INSTITUTION. 

Although in the visible church the evil be ever mingled 



400 APPENDIX. 

with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief authority 
in the ministration of the word and sacraments ; yet, for- 
asmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in 
Christ's, and do minister by his commission and authority, 
we may use their ministry both in hearing the word of 
God, and in receiving the sacraments. Neither is the 
effect of Christ's ordination taken away by their wicked- 
ness, nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such, 
as by faith do rightly receive the sacraments ministered 
unto them, which be effectual, because of Christ's institu- 
tion and promise, although they be ministered by evil 
men. Nevertheless it appertaineth to the discipline of the 
church, that enquiry be made of evil ministers ; and that 
they be accused by those that have knowledge of their 
offences ; and finally, being found guilty, by just judg- 
ment, be deposed. 

XXVIII. Of Baptism. — Baptism is not only a sign of 
profession and mark of difference, whereby Christian men 
are discerned from others that be not christened ; but it is 
also a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby, as by 
an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly, are grafted 
into the church ; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, of 
our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, 
are visibly signed and sealed ; faith is confirmed, and grace 
increased by virtue of prayer to God. The custom of the 
church, for baptizing young children, is both to be com- 
mended, and by all means to be retained in the church. 

XXIX. Or the Lord's Supper. — The supper of the 
Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought 
to have amongst themselves one to another ; but rather it 
is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death ; inso- 
much that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith 



APPENDIX. 401 

receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking 
of the body of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing is 
a partaking of the blood of Christ. Transubstantiation 
(or the change of the substance of bread and wine), in the 
supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy writ ; but 
is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, and hath 
given occasion to many superstitions. Since the very 
being of human nature doth require, that the body of one 
and the same man cannot be at one and the same time in 
many places, but of necessity must be in some certain and 
determined place : therefore the body of Christ cannot be 
present in many different places at the same time; and 
since (as the Holy Scriptures testify) Christ hath been 
taken up into heaven, and there is to abide till the end of 
the world, it becometh not any of the faithful to believe 
or profess, that there is a real or corporeal presence (as 
they phrase it) of the body and blood of Christ in the 
holy eucharist. The sacrament of the Lord's supper was 
not by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted 
up, or worshipped. 

XXX. Of the One oblation of Christ finished 
upon the Cross. — The offering of Christ once made is 
that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for 
all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual ; 
and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone ; 
wherefore the sacrifices of masses, in which it was com- 
monly said, that the priest did offer Christ for the quick 
and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were 
fables and dangerous deceits. 

XXXI. A single life is imposed on none by the 
word of God. — Bishops, priests, and deacons are not 



402 APPENDIX. 

commanded by God's law, either to avow the estate of 
single life, or to abstain from marriage. 

XXXII. Excommunicated Persons are to be 
avoided. — That person which, by open denunciation of 
the church, is rightly cut off from the unity of the church, 
and excommunicate, ought to be taken of the whole mul- 
titude of the faithful as a heathen and a publican, until he 
be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the 
church by a judge that hath authority thereunto. 

XXXIII. Of the traditions of the Church. — It 
is not necessary, that traditions and ceremonies be in all 
places one and utterly alike, for at all times they have been 
divers, and may be changed according to the diversity of 
countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be 
ordained against God's word. Whosoever, through his 
private judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly 
break the traditions and ceremonies of the church, which 
be not repugnant to the word of God, and be ordained 
and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked 
openly (that others may fear to do the like), as one that 
offendeth against the common order of the church, and 
hurteth the authority of the magistrate, and woundeth the 
consciences of weak brethren. 

XXXIV. Of the Homilies. — The homilies lately 
delivered and commended to the church of England by 
the king's injunction, do contain a godly and wholesome 
doctrine, and fit to be embraced by all men; and for 
that cause they are diligently, plainly, and distinctly to be 
read to the people. 

XXXY. Of the Book of Common Prayer, and 
other Bjtes and Ceremonies of the Church of 
England. — The book lately delivered to the church of 



APPENDIX. 403 

England by the king and parliament, containing the man- 
ner and form of public prayer, and the ministration of the 
sacraments in the said church of England, as also the 
book published by the same authority for ordering ministers 
in the church, are both of them very pious, as to the 
truth of doctrine : in nothing contrary, but agreeable to 
the wholesome doctrine of the gospel, which they do very 
much promote and illustrate. And for that cause they are, 
by all faithful members of the church of England, but 
chiefly of the ministers of the word, with all thankfulness 
and readiness of mind, to be received, approved, and 
commended to the people of God. 

XXXVI. Of the Civil Magistrates. — The king of 
England is, after Christ, the supreme head on earth of the 
church of England and Ireland. The bishop of Rome 
hath no jurisdiction in this realm of England. The 
civil magistrate is ordained and approved by God, and 
therefore is to be obeyed, not only for fear of wrath, but 
for conscience sake. Civil or temporal laws may punish 
Christian men with death for heinous and grievous of- 
fences. It is lawful for Christian men, at the command- 
ment of the magistrate, to wear weapons, and to serve in 
the wars. 

XXXVII. The Goods of Christians are not 
common. — The riches and goods of Christians are not 
common as touching the right, title, and possession of the 
same, as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast. Notwith- 
standing, every man ought, of such things -as he pos- 
sesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his 
ability. 

XXXVIII. It is lawful for a Christian to take 
an Oath.— As we confess that vain and rash swearing is 



404 APPENDIX. 

forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
James his Apostle ; so we judge that Christian religion 
doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the 
magistrate requireth, according to the Prophet's teaching, 
in justice, judgment, and truth. 

XXXIX. The Resurrection of the Dead is not 
past already. — The resurrection of the dead is not past 
already, as if it belonged only to the soul, which by the 
grace of Christ is raised from the death of sin, but it is to 
be expected by all men in the last day : for at that time 
(as the Scripture doth most apparently testify j the dead 
shall be restored to their own bodies, flesh, and bones : to 
the end that man, according as either righteously or 
wickedly he hath passed this life, may according to his 
works receive rewards or punishments. 

XL. The Souls of Men deceased do not perish 
with their Bodies. — They who maintain that the souls 
of men deceased do either sleep, without all manner of 
sense, to the day of judgment, or affirm that they die to- 
gether with the body, and shall be raised therewith at the 
last day, do wholly differ from the right faith and 
orthodox belief, which is delivered to us in the Holy 
Scripture. 

XLI. Of the Millenarians. — They who endeavour 
to revive the fable of the Millenarians are therein contrary 
to the Holy Scriptures, and cast themselves down headlong 
into Jewish dotages. 

XLII. All Men not to be saved at last. — They also 
deserve to be condemned who endeavour to restore that 
pernicious opinion, that all men, though never so ungodly, 
shall at last be saved : when for a certain time, appointed 



APPENDIX. 405 

by the divine justice, they have endured punishment for 
their sins committed. 



THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES OF ELIZABETH. 

I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. — There is but 
one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, 
or passions ; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness ; the 
Maker, and Preserver of all things both visible and invi- 
sible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three 
Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity ; the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

II. Of the Word or Son of God, which was made 
very Man. — The Son, which is the Word of the Father, 
begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and 
eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took 
Man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her 
substance : so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is 
to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together 
in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, 
very God, and very Man ; who truly suffered, was cruci- 
fied, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and 
to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for 
actual sins of men. 

III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell.— 
As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be 
believed, that he went down into Hell. 

IV. Of the Resurrection of Christ. — Christ did 
truly rise again from death, and took again his body, with 
flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection 



406 



APPENDIX. 



of Man's nature; wherewith he ascended into Heaven, 
and there sitteth, until he return to judge all Men at the 
last day. 

V. Of the Holy Ghost. — The Holy Ghost, proceed- 
ing from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, 
majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and 
eternal God. 

VI. Of the Sufficiency of the holy Scriptures 
for Salvation. — Holy Scripture containeth all things 
necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is not read there- 
in, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of 
any man, that it should be believed as an article of the 
Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In 
the name of the holy Scripture we do understand those 
Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose 
authority was never any doubt in the Church. 

Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Books. 



Genesis, 
Exodus, 
Leviticus, 
Numbers, 
Deuteronomy, 
Joshua, 
Judges, 
Euth, 

The First Book of Samuel, 
The Second Book of Samuel, 
The First Book of Kings, 
The Second Book of Kings, 
The First Book of Chron- 
icles, 



The Second Book of Chron- 
icles, 

The First Book of Esdras, 

The Second Book of Esdras. 

The Book of Esther, 

The Book of Job, 

The Psalms, 

The Proverbs, 

Ecclesiastes or Preacher, 

Cantica, or Songs of Solo- 
mon, 

Four Prophets the greater, 

Twelve Prophets the less. 



APPENDIX. 407 

And the other Books (as Hierome saith) the Church 
doth read for example of life and instruction of manners ; 
but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine ; 
such are these following : 



The Third Book of Esdras, 
The Fourth Book of Esdras, 
The Book of Tobias, 
The Book of Judith, 
The rest of the Book of 

Esther, 
The Book of Wisdom, 
Jesus the Son of Sirach, 
Baruch the Prophet, 



The Song of the Three 

Children, 
The Story of Susanna, 
Of Bel and the Dragon, 
The Prayer of Manasses, 
The First Book of Macca- 
bees, 
The Second Book of Mac- 
cabees, 



All the Books of the New Testament, as they are com- 
monly received, we do receive, and account them Ca- 
nonical. 

VII. Of the Old Testament. — The Old Testament 
is not contrary to the New : for both in the Old and New 
Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, 
who is the only Mediator between God and Man, being 
both God and Man. Wherefore they are not to be heard, 
which feign that the old Fathers did look only for tran- 
sitory promises. Although the Law given from God by 
Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Bites, do not bind 
Christian men, nor the Civil precepts thereof ought of 
necessity to be received in any commonwealth ; yet not- 
withstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from 
the obedience of the Commandments which are called 
Moral. 

VIII. Of the Three Creeds. — The Three Creeds, 
Nicene Creed, Athanasius's Creed, and that which is com- 
monly called the Apostles' 1 Creed, ought thoroughly to be 



408 APPENDIX. 

received and believed : for they may be proved by most 
certain warrants of holy Scripture. 

IX. Of Original or Birth-sin. — Original Sin standeth 
not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly 
talk ;) but it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of 
every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring 
of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original 
righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so 
that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit ; and 
therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth 
God's wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature 
doth remain, yea in them that are regenerated ; whereby 
the lust of the flesh, called in the Greek, phronema sarkos, 
which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some 
the affection, some the desire, of the flesh, is not subject 
to the Law of God. And although there is no condemna- 
tion for them that believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle 
doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the 
nature of sin. 

X. Of Free-Will. — The condition of Man after the 
fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare 
himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to 
faith, and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power 
to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without 
the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may 
have a good will, and working with us, when we have that 
good will. 

XI. Of the Justification of Man. — We are ac- 
counted righteous before God, only for the merit of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our 
own works or deservings : Wherefore, that we are justified 
by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full 



APPENDIX. 409 

of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of 
Justification. 

XII. Of Good Works.— Albeit that Good Works, 
which are the Fruits of Faith, and follow after Justifica- 
tion, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of 
God's Judgment ; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to 
God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and 
lively Faith ; insomuch that by them a lively Faith may 
be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit. 

XIII. Of Works before Justification. — Works done 
before the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of his 
Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring 
not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men 
meet to receive grace, or (as the School-authors say) de- 
serve grace of congruity ; yea rather, for that they are not 
done as God hath willed and commanded them to be 
done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin. 

XIY. Of Works of Supererogation. — Voluntary 
Works, besides over and above God's Commandments, 
which they call Works of Supererogation, cannot be taught 
without arrogancy and impiety : for by them men do de- 
clare, that they do not only render unto God as much as 
they are bound to do, but that they do more for his sake, 
than of bounden duty is required : whereas Christ saith 
plainly, When ye have done all that are commanded to 
you, say, We are unprofitable servants. 

XV. Of Christ alone without Sin. — Christ in the 
truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things, 
sin only except, from which he was clearly void, both in his 
flesh, and in his spirit. He came to be the Lamb without 
spot, who, by sacrifice of himself once made, should take 
away the sins of the world, and sin, as Saint John saith, was 

T 



410 APPENDIX. 

not in him. But all we the rest, although baptized, and 
born again in Christ, yet offend in many things ; and if we 
say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is 
not in us. 

XYI. Of Sin after Baptism. — Not every deadly sin 
willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the Holy 
Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repent- 
ance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Bap- 
tism. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may 
depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the 
grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives. 
And therefore they are to be condemned, which say, they 
can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny the 
place of forgiveness to such as truly repent. 

XVII. Of Predestination and Election. — Predes- 
tination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby 
(before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath 
constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver 
from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in 
Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to 
everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Where- 
fore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of 
God be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit 
working in due season: they through Grace obey the 
calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of 
God by adoption : they be made like the image of his 
only-begotten Son Jesus Christ : they walk religiously in 
good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to 
everlasting felicity. 

As the godly consideration of Predestination, and our 
Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeak- 
able comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in them- 



APPENDIX. 411 

selves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the 
works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing 
up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because 
it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal 
Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth 
fervently kindle their love towards God : So, for curious 
and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have 
continually before their eyes the sentence of God's Pre- 
destination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the 
Devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into 
wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than 
desperation. 

Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in such 
wise, as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture : 
and, in our doings, that Will of God is to be followed, which 
we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God. 

XVIII. Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by 
the Name of Christ. — They also are to be had accursed 
that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the 
Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to 
frame his life according to that Law, and the light of 
Nature. For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the 
Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved. 

XIX. Of the Church. — The visible Church of Christ 
is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure 
Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly 
ministered according to Christ's ordinance in all those 
things that of necessity are requisite to the same. 

As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, 
have erred ; so also the Church of Rome hath erred ; not 
only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also 
in matters of Faith. 



412 APPENDIX. 

XX. Of the Authority of the Church. — The 
Church, hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and 
authority in Controversies of Faith : And yet it is not law- 
ful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to 
God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place 
of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, 
although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy 
Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the 
same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing 
to be believed for necessity of Salvation. 

XXI. Of the Authority of General Councils. — 
General Councils may not be gathered together without 
the commandment and will of Princes. And when they 
be gathered together, (forasmuch as they be an assembly 
of men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and 
Word of God,) they may err, and sometimes have erred, 
even in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things 
ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither 
strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they 
be taken out of holy Scripture. 

XXII. Of Purgatory. — The Romish Doctrine con- 
cerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration 
as well of Images as of Reliques, and also invocation of 
Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon 
no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the 
Word of God. 

XXIII. Of Ministering in the Congregation. — 
It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of 
publick preaching, or ministering the Sacraments in the 
Congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to exe- 
cute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully 
called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work 



APPENDIX. 418 

by men who have publick authority given unto them in 
the Congregation, to call and send Ministers into the 
Lord's vineyard. 

XXIV. Of speaking in the Congregation in such 

A TONGUE AS THE PEOPLE UNDERSTANDETH. It IS a thing 

plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of 
the Primitive Church, to have publick Prayer in the 
Church, or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not un- 
derstanded of the people. 

XXV. Of the Sacraments. — Sacraments ordained of 
Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's 
profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses, and 
effectual signs of grace, and God's good will towards us, 
by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not 
only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our Faith 
in him. 

There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord 
in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of 
the Lord. 

Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, 
Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and extreme 
Unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gos- 
pel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt fol- 
lowing of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in 
the Scriptures ; but yet have not like nature of Sacraments 
with Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, for that they have 
not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God. 

The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed 
upon, or to be carried about, but that we should duly use 
them. And in such only as worthily receive the same they 
have a wholesome effect or operation : but they that receive 
them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation, as 
Saint Paul saith. T 2 



414 APPENDIX. 

XXVI. Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers 

WHICH HINDERS NOT THE EFFECT OF THE SACRAMENT. 

Although in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled 
with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief authority 
in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments, yet for- 
asmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in 
Christ's, and do minister by his commission and authority, 
we may use their Ministry, both in hearing the Word of 
God, and in receiving of the Sacraments. Neither is the 
effect of Christ's ordinance taken away by their wicked- 
ness, nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such as 
by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministered 
unto them ; which be effectual, because of Christ's institu- 
tution and promise, although they be ministered by evil 
men. 

Nevertheless, it appertaineth to the disciphne of the 
Church, that enquiry be made of evil Ministers, and that 
they be accused by those that have knowledge of their 
offences ; and finally being found guilty, by just judgment 
be deposed. 

XXVII. Of Baptism. — Baptism is not only a sign of 
profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian 
men are discerned from others that be not christened, but 
it is also a sign of Regeneration or new Birth, whereby, 
as by an instrument, they that receive Baptism rightly are 
grafted into the Church; the promises of forgiveness of 
sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the 
Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed ; Faith is con- 
firmed, and Grace increased by virtue of prayer unto 
God. The Baptism of young Children is in any wise to 
be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the 
institution of Christ. 



APPENDIX. 415 

XXVIII. Of the Lord's Supper. — The Supper of 
the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians 
ought to have among themselves one to another; but 
rather is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's 
death : insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with 
faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a 
partaking of the Body of Christ ; and likewise the Cup of 
Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. 

Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of 
Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be 
proved by holy Writ ; but is repugnant to the plain words 
of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and 
hath given occasion to many superstitions. 

The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the 
Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And 
the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and 
eaten in the Supper, is Faith. 

The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's 
ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped. 

XXIX. Of the Wicked which eat not the Body 
of Christ in the use of the Lord's Supper. — The 
Wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although 
they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth (as 
Saint Augustine saith) the Sacrament of the Body and 
Blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of 
Christ: but rather, to their condemnation, do eat and 
drink the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing. 

XXX. Of both kinds. — The Cup of the Lord is not 
to be denied to the Lay-people : for both the parts of the 
Lord's Sacrament, by Christ's ordinance and command- 
ment, ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike. 

XXXI. Of the one Oblation of Christ finished 



416 APPENDIX. 

"upon the Cross. — The Offering of Christ once made is 
that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for 
all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual ; 
and there is none other satisfaction for sin, hut that alone. 
"Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was 
commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the 
quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, 
were blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits. 

XXXII. Of the Marriage of Priests. — Bishops, 
Priests, and Deacons, are not commanded by God's Law, 
either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from 
marriage : therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other 
Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they 
shall judge the same to serve better to godliness. 

XXXIII. Of excommunicate Persons, how they 
are to be avoided. — That person which by open denun- 
ciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of 
the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of 
the whole multitude of the faithful, as an Heathen and 
Publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and 
received into the Church by a Judge that hath authority 
thereunto. 

XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church. — It 
is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all 
places one, and utterly like; for at all times they have 
been divers, and may be changed according to the diver- 
sities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that no- 
thing be ordained against God's Word. "Whosoever 
through his private judgment, willingly and purposely, 
doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the 
Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of God, and 
be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to 



APPENDIX. 



417 



be rebuked openly, (that others may fear to do the like,) 
as he that offendeth against the common order of the 
Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and 
woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren. 

Every particular or national Church hath authority to 
ordain, change, and abolish, ceremonies or rites of the 
Church ordained only by man's authority, so that all 
things be done to edifying. 

XXXV. Of the Homilies.— The second Book of 
Homilies, the several titles whereof we have joined under 
this Article, doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine, 
and necessary for these times, as doth the former Book of 
Homilies, which were set forth in the time of Edward the 
Sixth ; and therefore we judge them to : be read in Churches 
by the Ministers, diligently and distinctly, that they may 
be understanded of the people. 

Of the Names of the Homilies. 



1 Of the right Use of the 

Church. 

2 Against peril of Idol- 

atry. 
S Of repairing and keep- 
ing clean of Churches. 

4 Of good works : first of 

Fasting. 

5 Against Gluttony and 

Drunkenness. 

6 Against Excess of Ap- 

parel. 

7 Of Prayer. 

8 Of the Place and Time 

of Prayer. 



9 That Common Prayers 
and Sacraments ought 
to be ministered in a 
known tongue. 

10 Of the reverend estima- 

tion of God's "Word. 

11 Of Alms-doing. 

12 Of the Nativity of Christ. 

13 Of the Passion of Christ. 

14 Of the Resurrection of 

Christ. 

15 Of the worthy receiving 

of the Sacrament of the 
Body and Blood of 
Christ. 



418 APPENDIX. 



19 Of Repentance. 

20 Against Idleness. 

21 Against Rebellion. 



16 Of the Gifts of the Holy 

Ghost. 

17 For the Rogation- days. 

18 Of the state of Matrimony. 

XXXVI. Or Consecration of Bishops and Minis- 
ters. — The Book of Consecration of Archbishops and 
Bishops, and Ordering of Priests and Deacons, lately set 
forth in the time of Edicard the Sixth, and confirmed at 
the same time by authority of Parliament, doth contain all 
things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering : 
neither hath it any thing, that of itself is superstitious and 
ungodly. And therefore whosoever are consecrated or 
ordered according to the Rites of that Book, since the 
second year of the forenamed King Edward unto this 
time, or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered according 
to the same Rites; we decree all such to be rightly, 
orderly, and lawfully consecrated and ordered. 

XXXVII. Of the Civil Magistrates. — The Queen's 
Majesty hath the chief power in this Realm of England, 
and other her Dominions, unto whom the chief Govern- 
ment of all Estates of this Realm, whether they be Eccle- 
siastical or Civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not, 
nor ought to be, subject to any foreign Jurisdiction. 

Whereas we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief 
government, by which Title we understand the minds of 
some slanderous folks to be offended ; we give not to our 
Princes the ministering either of God's Word, or of the 
Sacraments, the which thing the Injunctions also lately 
set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify ; 
but that only prerogative, which we see to have been given 
always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God 
himself; that is, that they should rule all states and degrees 



APPENDIX. 419 

committed to their charge by God, whether they be Eccle- 
siastical or Temporal, and restrain with the civil sword 
the stubborn and evil-doers. 

The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm 
of England. 

The Laws of the Eealm may punish Christian men with 
death for heinous and grievous offences. 

It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of 
the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and serve in the wars. 

XXXVIII. Of Christian men's Goods, which are 
not common. — The Riches and Goods of Christians are 
not common, as touching the right, title, and possession of 
the same, as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast. Not- 
withstanding, every man ought, of such things as he pos- 
sesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his 
ability. ♦ 

XXXIX. Of a Christian man's Oath. — As we con- 
fess that vain and rash Swearing is forbidden Christian 
men by our Lord Jesus Christ, and James his Apostle, so 
we judge, that Christian Religion doth not prohibit, but 
that a man may swear when the Magistrate requireth, in a 
cause of faith and charity, so it be done according to the 
Prophet's teaching, in justice, judgment, and truth. 



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